Ajay Hanje, Pune
Mumbai police have registered a complaint against the builders on behalf of Gul Totlani, a Thane-based tax consultant and the chairman of the Midas Bhakti Meadows Allottees Association. Three directors of two construction companies were arrested by Mumbai Police on Wednesday for allegedly cheating 35 property purchasers out of a total of Rs 21.23 crore.
According to the police complaint, the accused directors of the construction companies Midas Builders and Bhakti Buildwell, Naveen Ramji Kothari, Irene Edwin DeMello, and Edwin DeMello, took money from the buyers under the guise of selling flats in Tilak Nagar but did not deliver the promised apartments even after ten years
The developer Kothari reportedly took money from 35 home buyers in 2013 with the promise of giving them flats in these sellable project components, said the police complaint. In keeping with the Slum Rehabilitation Authority’s (SRA) pledge to rehabilitate slum inhabitants, the developer supplied these apartments on-time. However, he is said to have failed to finish the buildings under sellable components. When the buyers realized the developer was not eager to finish the project, they went to Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA), and they got the developer to finish the project by the scheduled date.
The developer obtained a nod of approval from the house buyers association in compliance with the MahaRERA ruling, and they were also given an extended deadline to finish the project. But, he was unable to finish the project by the deadline once again. They then reported this to the police, claiming that the developer had taken the money from the property buyers and utilized it for other reasons. In addition, the complainant claimed that the developer sold two apartments on the 10th level to homeowners in spite of the fact that the building’s start certificate was not obtained.
According to a police officer, the Tilak Nagar police obtained DCP zone-6’s approval before filing a formal complaint (FIR) against the developer and the directors of the constitution firms under sections 3, 5, 8, and 13 of the Maharashtra Ownership of Flats (MOFA) Act and sections 409, 420, and 120B of the Indian Penal Code.