A man, wanted by city police for allegedly cheating NRIs to the tune of Rs eight core by luring them to invest in a non-existent hotel project in Karnataka two years ago, was arrested in Kolkata on Wednesday. Joseph Chacko, a city resident, against whom non-bailable warrants were issued by a court, was arrested by a team of Bangalore Police, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Alok Kumar said tonight. The Central Crime Branch police, who were searching for Chacko, were tipped off about his presence in a hotel in Chennai. But by the time a police team reached the hotel, Chacko had left for Kolkata by air. The team reached Kolkata and arrested Chacko, Kumar said. He was produced before a Kolkata court which permitted the police bring him here. He would be brought to the city by a flight, police said.
Chacko and three others were accused of luring NRIs from Bahrain and United Arab Emirates to make investments for construction of “Crown Plaza International Hotel and Resorts”, supposed to come up in Hennur. The investors were promised a seven-day stay in the hotel and also some share in the earnings of the resort. Chacko had advertised the project in the Gulf News daily. As many as 150 NRIs invested with 76 of them getting “sale deeds”. The investors later realised they were being conned and filed a complaint with the then Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy in May 2007, which was forwarded to the city police. As many as 40 cases against Chacko were registered in Hennur, Kothanoor, Hoskote, Nandagudi and Sulebele police stations. Three persons were arrested and police were searching for Chacko, facing non-bailable warrants in five cases.
Chacko, a PUC drop out, started as a painter and later went on to deal in real estate business. He developed contacts with NRI investors and got finances for his residential projects, more so from the NRIs. One such project was done by him in partnership with Atul Rao, an accused in Padmapriya suicide case in Mangalore. The police said Chacko was taking land of poor farmers as a power of attorney, assuring them of a good value for sale. But he failed to pay the farmers even after the sale. He moved to Kuwait in 1995 and assumed an NRI status. He exploited the NRIs especially from Karnataka and Kerala, who wanted to settle down in Bangalore. The police said Chacko was giving NRIs an impression of fully developed townships and was selling barren land in villages far away from the city. He had forged documents and sold government lands as private layouts. One such layout was Elysium Township in Hennur, the police said.
Chacko had 12 projects in Bangalore East, Bangalore South, Bangalore North and Hoskote taluks of Bangalore. Some of the projects were on the same land. The NRIs found it hard to check the genuineness of the projects because of the absence of proper government agencies, the police said. He had been convicted by the Higher Civil Court of Kingdom of Bahrain in a case of cheating of Rs 3.8 crore filed by M T Jose, an investor, in 2004, the police said.
