Builder’s employee cheats One Avighna Park residents

Employee of Avighna realty group defrauds residents of One Avighna Park, Currey Road, stealing money and selling podium space. Fraud totals ₹55 lakh.

MUMBAI: An employee of the Avighna realty group allegedly defrauded several residents of One Avighna Park, Currey Road on the pretext of selling them podium space in the building. He also stole money provided by the company for the project, committing a fraud of ₹55 lakh in all, said officials from Worli police who are investigating the matter.

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According to the complaint filed by another employee of the group, the accused Ali Abdul Ghani Shaikh, 37, was a facility manager with Nish Developers, which is part of the Avighna group. Several people told the company that they had been promised premium spaces in One Avighna Park for which they had paid the accused, the complaint stated.

“In June, building resident Ranjit Surana said he was sold store cage 5 and podium no 8 of A wing for ₹8 lakh, but he was not given any receipt or papers. A few days later, another resident Ketan Parikh told us that Shaikh took ₹30 lakh from him towards giving 100 feet cages, but did not give him any paper or receipt,” the complainant stated. He added that the builder’s officer received several such calls about Shaikh in the subsequent weeks.

The Worli police was also told that when Kailash Agarwal, owner of the company, confronted Shaikh over this, he yelled back and threatened to complain to civic authorities about an alleged illegal cage built in the podium of One Avighna Park.

“Complainant said that Shaikh demanded ₹25 lakh from Aggarwal as extortion and also threatened to kill him if he did not pay the money,” informed an official from the Worli police station.

The complainant also stated that Shaikh took ₹15-20 lakh cash kept in the office drawer for monthly expenses while leaving the office on the last day. He was booked under sections 379 (theft), 387 (putting person in fear of death), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code.