Vile Parle builder alleges ₹75 lakh fraud by society members

Mumbai: A builder based in Vile Parle has lodged a complaint accusing members of a housing society of conning him out of ₹75 lakhs in a rare incident

Mumbai: A builder based in Vile Parle has lodged a complaint accusing members of a housing society of conning him out of ₹75 lakhs in a rare incident. The accused allegedly hid from the developers that they had already sold the redevelopment rights of the residential project to another developer.

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AV Realty’s Aditya Vora, along with his father Viren Vora, filed a complaint against six individuals, including members of Om Prabha Ashish Cooperative Housing Society and agent Vinod Hirani, also an accused. The accused society members include Manoj Raje (secretary), Paresh Shah (chairperson), Daksha Shah (treasurer), Srinivas Surkrant, and Jitendra Parikh. They are booked for criminal conspiracy and cheating.

The complaint details that the Vora duo, in dealing with the society members through agent Vinod Hirani, were assured that the title deed of the society was clear. They agreed to build a corpus fund of ₹2 crores for the redevelopment, paying ₹24 lakhs for hardship compensation and other expenses. However, they later discovered the society had an ongoing agreement with another developer, and the society had been mortgaged for ₹52 crore.

“We had already paid the society ₹75 lakh, some of which was supposed to go towards the registration process. The rest was asked by Raje, who claimed an emergency had arisen that the society needs the money for,” stated the complaint. The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had taken control of the society after the other developer filed for bankruptcy.

The police have booked the accused under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (Criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant, or agent), 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 418 (Cheating with knowledge that wrongful loss may ensue to person whose interest offender is bound to protect), and 417 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code based on the complaint filed on Monday.