A woman who took a home loan to buy a flat five years ago recently realised that she had been cheated by the developer, who had allegedly got the amount transferred to an associate’s account and made her pay the EMIs.

The woman, who had taken a loan of Rs 25 lakh from the Jodhpur Park branch of a nationalised bank in 2015 to buy an apartment on Naktala Road, realised the fraud when she found that the flat had been handed over to another person and the EMIs she paid could not be refunded, police said.

Based on a complainant lodged by the woman, a resident of Tiljala Road, on Saturday, Netaji Nagar police station has registered an FIR against seven persons, including the developer, his associates and the then branch manager of the nationalised bank.

A case has been started under the IPC sections related to cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy.“The complainant had taken a home loan, but prima facie the entire sanctioned amount was transferred in the name of one of the associates of the developer. The woman had kept paying EMIs thinking she was paying for her flat,” said one of the investigators.

The woman got suspicious when the developer kept delaying the handover of the keys to the apartment. However, it was only recently that she learned that the flat allotted to her had been handed over to a third party.

Apparently, when she checked with the bank, she learned that the entire loan amount had been transferred to the account of an individual, instead of the account of the project where she had booked the flat.

A senior police officer said they had started investigating the matter after receiving the complaint. No one was arrested till Sunday evening.

Earlier this week, another woman, a resident of Salt Lake, had lodged a similar complaint of cheating with Behala police station. The woman had taken a loan of Rs 74 lakh to buy two flats — one in Behala and the other in Haridevpur — but the developer had allegedly re-sold the flats to other persons without her knowledge.

“Such frauds are becoming common. It is important to do a background check of any developer before booking a flat. One should check with the local police station if the person or the group has any criminal case,” said a senior police officer at Lalbazar.