Decomposed body at semi-built house: Residents say ‘shell’ homes in Greater Noida turning into dens of iniquity

Left unattended, these structures become havens for unknown individuals, often fostering criminal activity and disrupting communities, said residents

The discovery of a decomposed body of an alcoholic labourer at a Greater Noida home has yet again sparked the debate on shell construction of several houses and the “nefarious” activities plaguing the area.

The ‘shell’ house in Greater Noida’s Sigma-2 locality, where the decomposed body of a labourer was found on Thursday. (HT Photo)

A 40-year-old labourer, identified as Sarvesh, was found dead inside a house in Greater Noida’s Sigma-II locality, chowki in-charge Accher Sohanveer Singh informed on Thursday.

“The labourer used to stay at home. According to his neighbours, he would drink alcohol even during the daytime. During his room search, we did not find anything other than alcohol, said the officer, adding that workers like Sarvesh rent a room for a nominal amount and stay alone but they have no one to seek help in case they suffer a cardiac arrest.

The labouer’s body was found after a foul smell attracted his neighbours who called up RWA president of Sector Sigma-II in Greater Noida Yudhishtir Sharma. He called up police and informed them about the incident.

Singh said it looked like the body must have been rotting for a week in the apartment.

“It is good that his body was still identified or there have been cases where only skeletons were found in abandoned or unoccupied flats like this. We all know houses are erected in these areas solely to secure completion certificates, and minimum wage workers rent them further for a nominal amount to just return from work and sleep,” Singh shared.

In the past, Greater Noida’s Sigma 2 residents have raised the issue of unoccupied houses that have been taken over by squatters. Sharma said that he also has been facing the issue of shell constructions for a long time.

While the Greater Noida region has seen significant real estate development over the years, it has also brought challenges, including issues related to incomplete or delayed construction projects.

Some developers resort to constructing only the basic structure of buildings. It helps to meet regulatory requirements and obtain completion certificates while leaving other essential components unfinished.

According to Rakesh Dhamania, general secretary, RWA, Sector Sigma-ll, this grim incident sheds light on the prevailing situation in such semi-built houses, erected solely to secure “completion certificates” and evade penalties for construction delays.

“Left unattended, these structures become havens for unknown individuals, often fostering criminal activity and disrupting communities,” he added.

Narang, the owner of C 224 (the house, where the body was found) is a retired person who lives in Delhi while his son resides in Mumbai.

They have not come for years to inspect the flat, said RWA president Sharma.

“This residence had long been flagged by concerned residents for its mysterious visitors. Despite warnings from the RWA and neighbours, the owner never bothered to visit it. We had once issued a notice regarding a tenant, post which the owner did make a change. But still the issue persists everywhere,” Sharma said.

HT reached out to Narang for a response but he did not attend the call.

To be sure, at least 484 houses built in Sigma and Sigma II in both C and B blocks have the same kind of issue, where owners of about 70% houses have not yet completed their flats, thus leading to break-ins of some apartments.

“Some people are bootlegging and doing all kinds of nefarious activities. Due to the proximity of a country liquor distributor, many people drink there and come. We even learned that Sarvesh used to come home in a similar inebriated state and just keep lying there at the flat,” police said citing neighbours.

The RWA complained that time and again it has raised these issues with the Greater Noida authority but failed to see any favourable action.

“We have shared photographs of people lying here on the roads and parks. But nothing has been done. The authority should wake up and do something about it and address the elephant in the room but I don’t think they want to address it. They should issue notices to the people living there and alert them of any one barging into the house,” Sharma said.

Greater Noida CEO Ravi Kumar said that the authority is doing everything under their ambit to fix the situation at the earliest and the matter needs to be addressed by police.

Stating that he is not fully aware about the latest incident, Kumar however said that he would ensure that action is taken as early as Friday and a team would be sent to the area to get the issues addressed.

The CEO noted that a proper coordination between RWA and police can help in addressing such issues, adding that people too have to start taking their own responsibility.

“When someone is doing construction, we can only look into the legal structure if there is any violation of norms. We can’t just start exploring into the bio-data of a tenant, that will be an infringement of personal rights,” Kumar added.