Rana was arrested following more than 400 complaints regarding sale of plots in housing projects undertaken by PSG Developers — Rana is the company’s managing director. Other directors of PSG, and several other companies, are also mentioned in the complaints. More than 700 complaints have been received so far; over 1,200 investors are suspected to have been conned in the pre-launch housing scam.

Investors say Rana claimed land was yet to be acquired. “If that was so, why were permits issued by the authorities without verification?” asked Vipin Mehra, who had put money in the purported housing project.

As per inquiries so far, several thousand crores were invested in the projects, developed by PSG and some other builders in Noida, Faridabad, Shahapura, Jaipur and parts of western UP. The projects were unapproved or, in some cases, housed on land not bought by the developers.

Rana has been accused of cheating, fraud and criminal conspiracy.

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) is now investigating the case. But the victims are not happy either with the pace of inquiries or with the effect this has had on the builders. “Rana is in custody but there is a likelihood that he will influence investigations,” said Vinit Taneja, a Faridabad resident who had invested in the project. “The police should register complaints of all the investors. After all, no one got the houses.”

Fellow investors Vipin Mehra and S N Garg said PSG is only “part” of the scam. “There are other companies — Vian Infrastructure, Nealkanth Builders, R M Estates Pvt Ltd, Om Land in Jodhpur (Rajasthan) and others — involved in the project,” they said. “These companies continue to function; but they are also defrauding other innocent investors.

“If these channels are not properly investigated, the money siphoned off from us will be put into them (other projects), and never recovered.” EOW officials said these aspects are being investigated.

Meanwhile, a bunch of documents listed or examined by Newsline raise the question of how the builders got permits for the projects. A No Objection Certificate (NOC) was issued to RM Estate Pvt Ltd, one of the groups linked with Rana, by Noida Authority. The NOC was dated December 30, 2005, and signed by then Noida Authority CEO Sanjeev Saran.

Another permit, issued to the firm the same month, came from the Noida District Magistrate for land purchase. The Gautam Budh Nagar District Magistrate issued a further conditional permission to RM Estate and PSG Developers, giving them claim on a plot of land there.