Bollywood producer-cum-builder Azam Khan arrested for cheating home buyers

Mumbai: A Bollywood film producer-turned-builder has been arrested on Tuesday for allegedly cheating prospective flat buyers in Virar.

The Arnala coastal police picked up Azam Khan from his Andheri residence. Khan has produced around four Hindi films including Phoonk directed by Ram Gopal Varma (2008), Dasvidanya starring Vinay Pathak (2008), 340 in 2009 and Khalbali in 2010. He has several cases of cheque bouncing, misappropriation of funds and cheating cases registered at various police stations in Mumbai.

Police said that Khan is a partner in the company Ionic Realty. The company had floated a residential project ‘Ionic Eco City’ in J P Nagar, Boling, Virar (west). Money was collected from prospective buyers in 2011. On August 23, 2015, over 1,500 people who had invested money in the project filed a cheating case against two builders. They alleged that the plot on which they were promised flats was sold to another builder.

Police investigation revealed that Ionic Realty had sold the plot to ‘Crystal Homecon’, a company floated by Khan. While some were promised flats, others were issued refund cheques that bounced. The plot is believed to have been finally sold to a Virar based builder.

Khan, a former executive director of a Mumbai based entertainment producer and distribution company, has been booked under sections 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intent) of IPC.