Father-son builder duo arrested after allegedly duping homebuyers of crores of rupees

The accused, Ashok Jethwa, 55, and his son Mihir Jethwa, 35, were traced to a hotel in Ernakulam, Kerala, where they had allegedly been hiding for nearly a year after fleeing Gujarat. Police said the two posed as developers and enticed buyers with forged documents, fake permissions and false assurances of possession.

According to PSI Rahil Patil of Kasturba Marg police station, more than six cases have been registered against the Jethwas at the station, in addition to FIRs at Borivali and MHB Colony police stations. “They repeatedly floated bogus projects, collected large sums from buyers and abandoned the construction midway,” an officer said.

One complainant, a 50-year-old businessman from Khar West, told police he was cheated of ₹1.74 crore after booking three flats in a redevelopment project under Triveni Developers at Navkar Bhavan in Borivali East. He said the Jethwas claimed the building plan had been approved for 10 floors, that an application for an additional three floors was pending with the BMC, and that the project was RERA-registered. They allegedly promised possession by December 31, 2018.

According to the FIR, the businessman booked Flats 1301, 1302 and 1303 between 2016 and 2018, paying ₹1.74 crore, with a 24% interest guarantee in case of delay. By late 2018, he discovered that construction had stopped after the sixth floor and that the accused refused to refund his money.

Police said the duo later fled to Gujarat, where they allegedly lived under assumed identities using forged Aadhaar cards and other documents. Last week, officers received information that the pair had moved to Kerala. A special squad under the DCP tracked them to the Ernakulam hotel on Sunday night and detained them.

Officers say they expect more victims to come forward. “We are now trying to determine the full scale of the fraud and identify all those who may have been duped,” a Kasturba Marg police officer said.