delhi

Updated: Jul 10, 2015 07:25 IST

Aam Aadmi Party leader and MLA of Kondli assembly constituency, Manoj Kumar, was arrested and sent to two-day police custody on Thursday in connection with a cheating and forgery case filed against him last yeat at the New Ashok Nagar police station.

The Delhi police suspect that Kumar was part of an organised syndicate involved in land grabbing and cheating people using forged documents. The police are now working on busting the syndicate and nab other members involved in such crimes.

Manoj was part of a nexus involving local property dealers in east Delhi’s Kondli, Ghazipur and New Ashok Nagar that prepares forged documents for vacant plots in order to grab and sell plots to unsuspecting buyers, investigators believe.

The AAP MLA ran a real estate business in partnership with one Lakhpat in Mayur Vihar Phase-III before contesting the Delhi assembly elections in 2013, a police officer said.

Vijay Kumar, the complainant in the latest case, alleged that he was duped of Rs 6 lakh by Kumar and Lakhpat on the pretext of selling him a plot using fake and forged documents. While Manoj has been arrested in the case, efforts are on to nab Lakhpat.

“Manoj and Lakhpat showed Vijay a plot at Rajveer Colony in Ghadoli near Ghazipur and a deal was struck for Rs 21.60 lakh. On November 7, 2012, Manoj prepared an agreement claiming it to be its owner and took Rs 6 lakh as token money from Vijay,” the officer said.

After accepting the money, Manoj started avoiding Vijay and never heeded to Vijay’s demands to formally transfer the property. In his complaint, Vijay alleges, “Kumar began threatening me by claiming that he is an AAP MLA. The plot belonged to one ML Singh who told me that he had never sold his plot.”