Chandigarh, Jun 30 (IANS): Chandigarh Police has arrested five persons, including three women, on the charge of usurping high-end properties, especially of NRIs, after taking them on rent.

Their modus operandi was to identify the properties of NRIs and take them on rent. After a certain period, they stopped paying the rent and made ownership claims on that property.

They were arrested when they tried to occupy a house of US-based Harbhajan Singh in Chandigarh's Sector 40.

One of the accused women, Neeraj Malhotra, 45, is a proclaimed offender in at least half a dozen cheque bounce cases in Panchkula, Chandigarh and Mohali, police said.

The other accused have been identified as Dilpreet Grewal, 33, Kunti, 34, Amardeep Singh, 27, and Vikas Joshi, 29.

They were arrested on Sunday on the complaint of Ludhiana resident Amanjot Singh.

According to the police, Harbhajan Singh had rented out the house to Jayesh Panchal for 11 months in September 2019. He later stopped paying the rent.

When Harbhajan Singh's nephew Amanjot Singh and his wife visited the house, he found Neeraj Malhotra was staying there illegally along with four others.

Initially, Neeraj Malhotra got Amanjot arrested on the charge of sexually harassing her.

During investigation, the police found that they were illegal occupants of the house. They were arrested on charge of forcibly and fraudulently occupying the premises.

As per the police, the women had illegally occupied seven houses of NRIs in the tricity.