The main accused in Bengaluru’s Catena Homes scam case, in which customers were allegedly cheated out of over Rs 50 crore after being offered homes for lease, has moved the Karnataka High Court against the transfer of the case to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police.
Electronic City-based Catena Homes allegedly offered houses on lease to prospective residents, while the actual owners of the properties were told that they were being rented out. Three agents of the firm had earlier been arrested in the case.
People who spoke to indianexpress.com said they had spent lakhs to get the homes on lease for a particular period, only for the owners of the properties to ask them to vacate. They also said they were not able to recover the money they had paid.
Many of the occupants were migrants residing in Marathahalli, Banaswadi, Whitefield, and the Electronic City area. Catena Homes was the intermediary between the homeowners and the residents, who would pay between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 50 lakh to lease homes.
According to the court petition, filed by Vivek Keshvan, the business model of the company was to enter into rent-cum-lease agreements with property owners with a specified lock-in period. The petition states that after several tenants asked to vacate the homes without reasons, he had requested time until December 2025 to return the money. However, the petition says, cheating cases were lodged against him.
The petition goes on to state that the dispute is civil and that the police would therefore not have jurisdiction over the matter, as the aggrieved party could have approached a civil court. It also argues that the transferring of the cases to the CID for investigation contravenes the Karnataka Police Manual. It further argues that only cases that affect more than one district ought to be assigned to the CID.
The petition seeks an order quashing the letter assigning the case to the CID. In the interim, it requests that any proceedings from the letter be stayed.