New Delhi, Mar 25 (PTI) The Delhi Police has arrested a 42-year-old man from Maharashtra's Nashik for allegedly cheating people to the tune of nearly Rs 1,000 crore on the pretext of selling them flats in Noida, officials said on Friday.

The accused has been identified as Piyush Tiwari alias Puneet Bhardwaj, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Noida who was currently residing in Nashik, they said.

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He was wanted in more than 30 cheating cases in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. Police had announced a reward of Rs 50,000 for information leading to his arrest, they said.

On Sunday, police received a tip-off that Tiwari was residing in Nashik. They started following him and apprehended him on Tuesday, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Sagar Singh Kalsi said.

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During interrogation, Tiwari disclosed that he started his business as a builder in 2011. He had created around eight companies along with 15-20 shell companies till 2018. In 2016, the Income Tax department had raided his house and seized around Rs 120 crore, the police said.

He sold one flat to multiple buyers and collected money from them. Several cases were registered against him and he fled to Nashik, they said.

Tiwari initially started an advertising agency in Delhi-NCR. Later, he sold the agency and invested money in building flats in Noida, the police said.

His wife was also involved in multiple cheating cases and is presently lodged in jail, they said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)