An advertisement on classifieds website OLX has put up Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Varanasi office on sale for a price of Rs 7.5 crore. Four persons have been arrested in this connection. The advertisement had details and photos of the establishment.
The police have brought down the ad and lodged an FIR in the matter. “We received information someone has taken a photograph of the Prime Minster’s office located in that Jawaharnagar colony of Bhelupur area, and uploaded it on the OLX website. Taking cognisance of the issue, an FIR was filed and an investigation was launched into the matter. The person who took the photograph has also been arrested. Further investigation is underway,” SSP Varanasi Amit Pathak has said in a statement issued to the media.
According to senior police officials, the OLX ad had listed Prime Minister Modi's Parliamentary office in Varanasi as a villa with four rooms and four bathrooms with a carpet area of 6,500 square feet. It is located in the 77 parliamentary constituency. While this office, mainly used for public relations work of the Prime Minister, is located in Jawahar Nagar Extension, the advertisement reportedly showed the office located in Krishna Dev Nagar.
Varanasi police have now removed the ad and also nabbed four people involved in putting up the post on OLX. The seller has been listed as one Lakshmikant Ojha. Further investigations in the case were underway.
Fake advertisements on the OLX website, an e-commerce site, are not uncommon. The police of states across the country have cracked down upon fraudulent advertisements time and again. Earlier in September, it was reported that sellers posing as army men were defrauding customers. In March, an investigation by a police team from Tamil Nadu revealed 14 cases from different parts of Chennai where unknown scammers were found luring prospective buyers with compelling offers on second-hand cars and two-wheelers with fake identity proofs.