Fraud broker cheats 38 families, escapes with crores of rupees

Fraud broker cheats 38 families, escapes with crores of rupees

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, November 3: A trickster has fled from the country after cheating dozens of middle-class families from coastal Karnataka of millions of rupees. Identified as Shareef Ibrahim, the trickster was reportedly residing at Harmony Apartment in Mangalore before fleeing to Dubai or another gulf country. Shareef was quite a well-known figure in Mangalore, having been into active politics some years back.
 

 

 

 

 

 

              

 

Thirty-eight victims of Shareef Ibrahim lodged a joint complaint with Mangalore Police Commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh. In their complaint, they stated that the cheat collected crores from them after telling them that he will return the money in a short period of time. The victims also lodged complaints against Nazir Yousuf and Shakir Ahmed, both business associates of Shareef. The commissioner received the documents related to their agreements with Shareef.

The complaint was lodged under the leadership of Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) DK District Committee, on Nov 3, Wednesday. The complainants also informed the commissioner that an FIR was already registered at Kankanady Police Station a few days back.

Shareef’s methods

Shareef would approach people seeking to rent a house, informing them that he was a broker and telling them that they need not pay monthly rents if they reach agreements or deals without any legal documents. Instead, Shareef would pay the monthly rents without fail. The condition was that the tenants will have to deposit a large amount of money with him and allow him to deal with the owner directly. The tenant would not have to deal with the owner at all. Shareef would then rent a house in any apartment and give it in lease to the tenants.

A number of middle class families agreed to this deal and deposited Rs. 2 lakh to Rs. 20 lakh with Shareef, hoping that he will return it to them within 2 months and pay the rent to the owners. Most of these families believed that they were the only ones who had made such a deal with Shareef.

Shareef then neither paid the rent to the owners nor returned the money to the tenants. Reportedly, Shareef had been cheating people in this manner for the past 3 – 4 years.

Victims’ stories

Shareef’s victims were usually middle class families; and he collected money from them through oral promises only. He used to gain the trust of Muslim families by approaching them well in advance and pretending to be an honest broker.

One of his victims, N. E. Mohammed residing at H. H. Cottage, Mallur, said that Shareef posed as an honest and trustworthy person and obtained Rs. 2.30 lakh from him.

Shameena Ashraf, a resident of Hermitage in Falnir, said that she gave Rs. 4 lakh to Shareef around 6 months back, while her sister and her brother gave Rs. 4 lakh and Rs. 5 lakh, respectively. She informed reporters that she came to know that Shareef was not paying the rent when the owner directly contacted them and demanded to be paid a few days before Ramadan. Shareef promised that he would return the entire sum after Ramadan; however, he was unavailable after Ramadan and his family members said that they had no idea of his whereabouts. Shareef’s house has been locked since Oct 5, and police suspect that the entire family has flown to the gulf.

Sheikh Mohammed Iqbal, a resident of Nalpad Kunil Towers on Nellikai Road, said that, although he is an educated person, he was cheated by Shareef. When he demanded security for his Rs. 4 lakh, he received a couple of checks for Rs. 2 lakh each from Shareef. However, both the checks bounced.

Rising Prices Blamed

Owing to the rising prices of flats and houses in Mangalore, a number of families looking for houses have been cheated. A lot of them have lost their lifetime savings and have been rendered homeless. Even flat owners are not interested in listening to their grievances.

Blaming the recent developments on the cancellation of the Rental Act, Muneer Katipalla, the president of DYFI, said that there is no act regulating rental amount, owing to which a number of tricksters like Shareef Ibrahim are busy cheating innocent people of their money. A number of cheats are yet to be caught, he added.