No bail for two builders accused of duping flat buyers

The FIR was registered against them in July 2022 after a complaint by a chartered accountant whose family members had booked six flats in the Atharva Landmark project for ₹4.8 crore a decade ago.

Mumbai: The sessions court recently rejected the anticipatory bail application of two builders for allegedly duping flat buyers of ₹13.79 crore. The accused, Deepak Shah and Shrenik Jain of Atharva Realtors sold flats to two buyers and mortgaged the properties to a finance company in Malad (East).

(Getty Images)

The FIR was registered against them in July 2022 after a complaint by a chartered accountant whose family members had booked six flats in the Atharva Landmark project for ₹4.8 crore a decade ago. The realtors had promised to deliver the flats in 2015 but failed to do so.

The Economic Offences Wing, Mumbai police, told the court that the custody of the accused was needed to probe the allegations. The sessions court agreed and rejected their anticipatory bail pleas.

Kailash Dhaniram Yadav, a jeweller and flat buyer, said he had received a brochure of the Atharva Landmark project in Malad (East) in 2010. He had decided to book a flat and had met Shah. As per the agreement, the complainant said, the buyers were to get possession of the flat in 2015. In case of a delay, they were entitled to a return of 28% per annum on their investment. The developer had planned to construct a 22-storey tower, however, they could only complete 15 floors in the stipulated time, he alleged.

Yadav told the police that the builder sold eight of their flats to two more buyers. The building which has no electricity and water connection so far had no commercial blocks in the brochure. However, the builder tampered with the original plan and built offices and shops on the ground floor – in the space which was assigned for parking lots and which too were sold to flat buyers.

“We had no electricity and no water. We got the society registered and the committee members collected funds and made arrangements. We had to pay for that over and above the price of the flat,” said Yadav. “We were shown a five-star building but stuffed into a hutment. We are just waiting for their arrest.”

“My clients have been duped for an amount of ₹13.79 crore. There are multiple cases filed against the accused persons as they have done illegal and unauthorized construction. They have used the space of society premises which were originally meant for parking, club house and gymnasium and converted those society spaces into commercial shops/offices and sold them. Moreover, these conversions were not even permissible by MCGM,” said advocate Bhanudas Jagtap and advocate Mahesh Rajpopat who represented the flat purchasers.