Dhruv Dutt Sharma, the chief executive of the firm behind the 32nd Avenue commercial real estate project, was arrested by the Gurugram police on Friday in a ₹500-crore cheating case.
Officially, the scam is worth ₹500. However, unofficially, authorities believe he has duped people of over ₹1,000 crore, HT has learnt.
A 34-year-old Sharma, resident of DLF Camellias in Sector 42 on Golf Course Road, was arrested by the Gurugram police‘s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and produced before a local court on Friday, which remanded him to six days of police custody.
A first information report (FIR) was filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) on January 2, HT reported earlier.
How Dhruv Sharma ran the scam?
According to deputy commissioner of police (West) Karan Goel, the 32nd Avenue CEO duped 800 to 1,000 investors in the last year.
To be clear, Dhruv Dutt Sharma cheated investors, not homebuyers. Goel said that Sharma would ask the complainants to invest in the commercial property on the promise that they would get “fixed returns for 30 years”.
He paid them interest in the first year, but the payments stopped after that, triggering concerns among investors.
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Sharma also promised investors larger areas measuring 200 square feet. However, when they checked, they found that only a plot of 100 sq ft was in their name.
Assistant commissioner of police (EOW) Vishal Kumar also stated that during the investigation, it was found that “the ownership rights of the same property were transferred to at least 25 other investors between 2022 and 2023”.
Additionally, Sharma failed to pay his employees since September 2025.
What does the FIR say?
According to the FIR, a copy of which was accessed by HT, Traum Ventures Pvt Ltd stated that Sharma and associated entered into an agreement for the sale of a 3,000 sq ft commercial unit on the first floor of the 32nd Avenue building in September 2021, a deal worth ₹2.5 crore.
The company alleged that it paid the amount to Sharma, but never received the property’s ownership.
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Gurugram police and the EOW also learned that the ownership rights of the same property were transferred to at least 25 other investors between 2022 and 2023.
Later, Sharma entered into agreements with these investors to lease the entire 3,000 sq ft space back in his own name.
According to the police, Dhruv Sharma is also the proprietor of several other firms, including 32nd Vistas Pvt Ltd and Growth Hospitality LLP. He runs other companies, in which his parents and relatives are listed as co-directors.
The FIR also named ASP Products, Apra Motels and Apra Automobiles, as well as some of Sharma’s relatives.
DCP Goel stated that Sharma was arrested in one of at least five FIRs lodged against him and his firms at the Civil Lines police station in the past month.
Traum Ventures is among 55 investors who have approached the police alleging fraud by Sharma.
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However, the police investigation suggests that the actual number of investors who may have been impacted could be in the hundreds, adding that more FIRs could be registered based on further complaints.
Additionally, an intimation in this regard has been sent to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), requesting that the central agency probe if money laundering was also involved.
Where did the money go?
According to a senior EOW official, who spoke to HT on condition of anonymity, preliminary findings indicate that the investor funds may have been routed across multiple firms owned by Sharma.
“It appears that money collected from investors was transferred from one company to another,” the official said, adding that investigators found indications that the funds were allegedly used to purchase plots and hotel properties in Goa and Rajasthan.