Builder booked for allegedly duping investor of ₹11.5 cr in Bandra SRA project

Police said complainant Basantraj Meghraj Sethia, 61, a builder from Vile Parle, entered into a joint development agreement with Vaman Ramchandra Madye, the accused, in 2010 for the construction of Vishal Ashiana which is an SRA building in Nirmalnagar

MUMBAI: The Nirmalnagar police have registered a cheating case against builder Vaman Ramchandra Madye for allegedly defrauding a developer of around ₹11.5 crore. He reportedly sold 19 flats in a Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) building in Bandra without authorisation and diverted the proceeds to his own company account, police said. The case was transferred to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Tuesday.

Builder booked for allegedly duping investor of ₹11.5 cr in Bandra SRA project

Police said complainant Basantraj Meghraj Sethia, 61, a builder from Vile Parle, entered into a joint development agreement with Vaman Ramchandra Madye, the accused, in 2010 for the construction of Vishal Ashiana which is an SRA building in Nirmalnagar.

According to the FIR, the two formed a joint entity, M/s Swaraj Associates, to execute the project. The agreement reportedly gave Sethia rights over the sale of flats within the building, while profits were to be divided in a ratio of 70% for Sethia and 30% for Madye.

Madye allegedly sold 19 flats in the building, which did not have an Occupation Certificate (OC), without permission from Swaraj Associates. Police said that instead of depositing the money from the sale in the account of the joint entity, he transferred nearly ₹11.5 crore to the account of his own firm, Rajhans Builders and Developers.

After realising the fraud, Sethia obtained records from the joint sub-registrar’s office and found details of 16 of the 19 flats sold and approached the Nirmal Nagar Police Station. Following verification of the complaint, the Nirmalnagar police registered a cheating case against Madye.

When contacted, Madye said that the allegations were baseless and false. He claimed Sethia had not invested any money in the project and also said that a previous EOW case filed against him in 2022 had been closed due to lack of evidence.

“Sethia’s FIR maliciously criminalizes a civil dispute sub-judice before the Hon’ble Bombay High Court. Crucially, these allegations were previously investigated, yielding an EOW clean chit. Using political influence, Sethia revived this narrative solely to derail his Rs. 63 crore EOW mass forgery case against me. His forgery includes fabricating my partnership retirement for a fraudulent SRA proposal, which the housing society admitted. Furthermore, an Additional Collector’s report exposes his fraud of adding fake shanties to usurp government FSI. I have submitted comprehensive evidence to the EOW,” he said.