City builder stuck a ₹100-cr deal with Chhota Shakeel to get two projects cleared

A close associate of Arif has told the investigators that he was introduced to Machinder by Arif in 2018. The witness claimed that Machinder had visited Arif’s office for resolving issues related to his two projects – Grove Tower in Oshiwara and another one in Abhudaya Nagar in Kalachowki

Mumbai A member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang, who had worked with gangster Chhota Shakeel’s brother-in-law Arif Abubakar Shaikh aka Arif Bhaijaan, has told the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that builder Vijay Machinder of Ornate Spaces had offered ₹100 crore to Dawood’s henchman Chhota Shakeel to get allotment letters from the old purchasers of his Oshiwara project and to get all the tenants vacated from old buildings of Abhyudaya Nagar which he was to develop.

Chhota Shakeel

In its charge-sheet filed against Shaikh, his brother Shabbir and Salim Fruit – the husband of the sister of Shakeel’s wife - NIA claimed that the three were involved in various activities of extorting money from builders and other businessmen in the city.

A close associate of Arif has told the investigators that he was introduced to Machinder by Arif in 2018. The witness claimed that Machinder had visited Arif’s office for resolving issues related to his two projects – Grove Tower in Oshiwara near Oshiwara police station and another one in Abhudaya Nagar in Kalachowki in Central Mumbai. The witness claimed that Arif had asked him to look into the documents as there were court and bank issues involved in the project.

“Machinder came to Arif Bhaijaan as he wanted his help to get back allotment letters from the old purchasers of Oshiwara project and to vacate all tenants from the old building of Abyudaya Nagar in Kalachowki,” the witness told investigators.

Besides, the witness said, “For this work Machinder was supposed to give ₹100 crore to Chhota Shakeel and D Company. Machinder had given ₹16 crore in cash to Chhota Shakeel and D Company through Arif Bhaijaan and Shabbir Abubakar Shaikh. He had also issued 20 signed cheques of ₹5 crores each, total amounting ₹100 crore and allotment letter of those flats,” the witness further said in his statement.

The witness further said that Machinder had received ₹100 crore from investors in advance and now that he had received required permissions, he wanted to repurchase the properties from the same investors.

“Machinder gave this work to Arif Bhaijan. According to the deal, Machinder would give ₹3000/- per sq ft, that is ₹30 crore to D Company as commission for putting the investors in fear of death and usurp the property in the name of D Company through Arif Bhaijan and Shabbir,” the witness claimed.

The NIA also recorded statement of Machinder who denied having met Arif or Shabbir ever in his life. About the cheques given to Arif’s man, Machinder claimed, “during my project at Oshiwara, I had an ongoing financial dispute with PNB and Piramal group. At that time, I was searching for investors for the said project and accordingly many persons from finance sectors and real estate agents used to approach me for sanctioning the loan. As I was trying to get finance, I issued many cheques to many people as security for arranging a financer. In respect of the above cheque, I do not exactly recollect, to whom I had given the cheques. I did not maintain records of whom I gave such type of a cheque.”