CHENNAI: The Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the city police on Saturday arrested two persons, including a woman, for allegedly running a fake property management firm and cheating tenants of around Rs 2.11 crore by sub-leasing 34 houses rented from property owners across Chennai and its suburbs.
The suspects have been identified as Helen Rose (59) of Thiruverkadu and Premkumar (50) of Chitlapakkam, proprietors of Imayam Homes Property Management.
Police said the case came to light after the complainant Fathima Beevi, a victim, came across an OLX advertisement in 2023 offering houses for rent and lease. She contacted the suspects and was taken to their office at Valasaravakkam, where they offered her a house belonging to Manikandan. The suspects, who had rented the house in their firm’s name, collected Rs 7 lakh from Fathima as lease amount. However, after the duo failed to pay rent to Manikandan, he asked Fathima to vacate the house. She subsequently approached the GCP Commissioner seeking recovery of her money.
A case was registered and investigated by the Entrustment Document Fraud Investigation Wing of the CCB. The probe revealed the suspects had rented 34 houses from owners in the name of their firm and subsequently sub-leased them to prospective tenants. They collected around Rs 2.11 crore through online payments, bank transfers, and cash, the police said.
The duo allegedly neither paid rent to the property owners nor returned the lease amounts to tenants before shutting down the firm and going underground.Following a search, CCB team arrested them on August 21 and seized rental and lease documents from their possession.