Old age home trustees arrested

PUNE: Police on Wednesday arrested the trustees of an old age home for allegedly duping 30 senior citizens to the tune of Rs 4 crore. Two days after registering the crime, the Vishrambaug police took into custody Ajay Govind Bhute (45), chairman of Shanti Charitable Foundation (Trust), and two other office bearers - Himanshu Jalukar (43) of Sahakarnagar and Nitin Chavan (31) of Vadgaon.
The trust runs an old age residential facility at the Mauje Gaudara village near Katraj. Thirty inmates used to stay there but after the trustees abandoned the place, that number was down to 10.
Senior police inspector Hemant Bhat of Vishrambaug police station said, "He (Bhute) was produced before a city court on Thursday which remanded him in police custody till October 27. The other two have been remanded in police custody till October 24."
After Bhute was arrested, the police searched his home as well as his office. During questioning, Bhute told police that he had collected the money from the senior citizens and invested it in a real estate scheme which went belly-up. "He claimed that he had incurred severe losses, which was why he said he failed to provide the facilities promised," Bhat said.
Bhute had even furnished an affidavit, promising to install all the facilities, but the inmates, already feeling aggrieved, did not trust him.
The accused used to operate out of an office on the Kumthekar road in Sadashiv Peth. They charged each of their victims, aged over 65 years, between Rs 20 and 25 lakh, promising a state-of-the-art old age living facility.
The case came to light when one of the inmates, Vasant Purushottam Satpute (90) of Sahakarnagar, lodged a complaint with the Vishrambaug police station on Monday.