THE GOAN NETWORK
MAPUSA:
Police have booked a resident of Mapusa for cheating and dishonestly inducing a Goan-based NRI to the tune of Rs 43 lakh.
An FIR has been registered against alleged accused, Arnaldo Braganza, a resident of Feira Alta, Mapusa for cheating and criminal breach of trust.
Police informed that the accused dishonestly induced the NRI to invest money in a policy with a private Life Insurance Company promising him attractive returns at maturity.
“The NRI trusted the accused and paid an installment of Rs 10 lakh as first premium but since the NRI was staying in Australia and having a NRE account in a nationalized bank in Assonora, he handed over some blank signed cheques to the accused to pay the remaining four annual premiums,” the FIR said.
The FIR further said that the alleged accused failed to pay the remaining premiums and instead withdrew cash from the NRI’s bank account and cheated him of Rs 43 lakh thereby committing criminal breach of trust.
In his complaint to the police, the NRI Jose D’Souza said that the alleged accused, Arnaldo Braganza approached him as the advisor of a private insurance company and asked him to invest in an insurance policy for five years.
Accordingly the complainant paid the first premium of Rs 10 lakh and handed over various blank signed cheques to Braganza and entrusted him to deal with an amount of Rs 80 lakh from the complainant’s NRE account in a nationalized bank in Assonora.
The two had also executed a written agreement on how Braganza would deal with the amount/cheques.
A per the agreement, Braganza was supposed to make payment of Rs 40 lakh as premium for the insurance policy for the remaining four years and the remaining amount was to be paid as donation to a religious institute.
The complainant said Braganza made payments to the religious institute but failed to utilize Rs 43 lakh as per their agreement and therefore cheated him.
“It is clear Braganza has diverted the amount of Rs 43 lakh after practicing inducement and fraud upon me to his own use and embezzled the same,” the complainant said.
An offence under section 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing a person) of the IPC has been registered against the alleged accused.
Mapusa Police is investigating further.
