Contractor booked for subpar repair of army properties, cheating

A case of cheating has been registered based on a complaint from an army officer against a contractor from New Delhi, who was supposed to repair and renovate a three-storeyed army building in Colaba and a one-floor building in Juhu.

MUMBAI: A case of cheating has been registered based on a complaint from an army officer against a contractor from New Delhi, who was supposed to repair and renovate a three-storeyed army building in Colaba and a one-floor building in Juhu. The police said that as per the allegations, a structural audit of the buildings revealed that the work was of sub-standard quality and the buildings were unfit for habitation. “We have registered a case against the contractor, Pankaj Chadha,” said a police officer from Cuffe Parade police station.

Contractor booked for subpar repair of army properties, cheating

The complainant, Faiz Siddiqui, is a lieutenant colonel with the Indian Army, and also the secretary of The Army Officers Mess and Institute. The latter, which has an office in Colaba, decided in 2024 to repair and reconstruct its properties in Juhu and Colaba.

“A lodge, a restaurant, a gymnasium and a ground-plus-one building at Juhu, besides a lounge and a three-storey building in Colaba, all of which came under The Army Officers Mess and Institute, were to be ‘renewed, repaired and reconstructed’,” said the police officer. “Pankaj Chadha was assigned the work of the three-storey building in Colaba and the ground-plus-one building in Juhu while the rest went to another contractor. The amount decided for the Colaba work was around ₹2.19 crore and Juhu was ₹1.19 crore. An advance payment of ₹2.23 crore was made to Chadha.”

After Chadha completed the work and handed it over, the army got a structural audit done from a Kalachowki-based company. In its report of November 13, 2025, the company said that the structures at Juhu and Colaba were “substandard, unfit for habitation and should be immediately dismantled or heavy repairs should be carried out on the Juhu property”.

“When Chadha was contacted regarding the construction, he told the defence authorities to get IIT Mumbai to do a structural audit,” said the police officer. “When the IIT Mumbai team was hired, it gave the same report: either dismantle the Juhu and Colaba properties or carry out heavy repairs on the Juhu property.”

Even the certificates submitted by Chadha—a Geotechnical Investigation Report, a Quality Assurance Certificate and a Structural Audit—were all fake, said the police officer. “Thus, we have registered a case under Sections 318 (cheating), 336 (forgery) and 340 (forged document or electronic record and using it as genuine) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023,” he added.