Conman selling home dreams to poor for Rs25 detained in Ahmnedabad

A day after DNA published a report on how a man in Dudheshwar was collecting money from displaced slum dwellers to help them get homes, Madhavpura police detained the ‘mastermind’ on Thursday. Police have booked HJ Pagare for breach of trust and cheating. Under the banner of ‘Beghar Gruh Nirman Society’, HJ Pagare,  resident of Mahakali Temple Road, floated a scheme for displaced slum dwellers. Their homes along the river banks under the Vadaj-Dudheshwar Bridge were demolished by the civic body.

Under the scheme floated by Pagare, slum dwellers who signed up for the same were given ‘assurance’ that he would get them the houses promised by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). He charged each person Rs25 to register with him. Taking serious note of the scheme after DNA published a report on Wednesday, police raided Pagare’s house on Thursday morning and detained him. According to SG Parmar, police inspector of Madhavpura, the scheme is illegal and Pagare failed to answer the queries raised by them.

“Pagare is clever. He charged only Rs25 from the poor slum dwellers, so if something went wrong, no one would bother to confront him for loss of such a petty sum. However, we have learned that he has collected more than Rs2.5 lakh from them.