Noida, Feb 21 (PTI) A Noida resident has been allegedly duped of more than Rs 22 lakh by two persons, including one who identified himself as a government official, on pretext of helping him with paper work related to his property, police said on Tuesday.

The complainant, a resident of Sector 49, said he had purchased a commercial land in Greater Noida in 2018 and was trying to get its registry done but got conned by the accused duo over a period of time, according to the police.

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An FIR in the case was lodged at Sector 49 police station on Sunday and an investigation has been taken up, a police official said.

Complainant Pramod Chauhan said he had first met one of the suspects during a visit to the office of the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) for registry work.

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“I had to get the land's transfer memorandum (TM) done and get its completion certificate along with the functioning certificate from the GNIDA office. In July 2018, when I was at the GNIDA office, I met a man who identified himself as Ashish Garg and said he worked at GNIDA and could get my work done for Rs 20 lakh,” Chauhan stated in his complaint.

He further claimed that he transferred a total of Rs 18.41 lakh to Garg between July 2018 and July 2020 in multiple installments and on July 14, 2020, the accused handed over the TM document to him and said the work has been done.

When asked for the completion certificate and the functioning certificate, Garg told Chauhan that those documents have been attached in GNIDA's file and since the COVID-19 pandemic was underway he could not get the documents verified himself, according to the complainant.

While the actual work remained incomplete, in 2021, Garg introduced Chauhan to a person named Aazad Singh. Garg assured Chauhan that Singh could get the pending work done if paid Rs 4.50 lakh, trapping him into paying them more money.

“After about five months, Garg and Singh stopped answering my calls and changed their contact numbers as well. In February, I went to the GNIDA office and found that the transfer memorandum certificate that Garg had handed over to me was forged. The officials also told us that there is no person by the same name working there," he said.

A police official said an FIR has been lodged in the case under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) and investigation launched.

"The matter is being probed and details of the suspects as shared by the victim are being scrutinized. Besides this, the accused have been put on surveillance so that they could be arrested at the earliest,” the official added.

(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)