Delhi: Fraudsters target people looking for affordable housing

New Delhi: Sometime around November 2018, Dr

New Delhi: Sometime around November 2018, Dr. Shivali Seth, a Delhi-based dermatologist, came across a newspaper advertisement regarding an affordable housing scheme being launched by a private developer in southwest Delhi’s Chhawla. The developer claimed that the scheme was under the Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) land pooling policy.

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“Since the advertisement had the DDA’s name and the scheme was lucrative and affordable, I invested R12.37 lakh, after my name figured in the list of people selected in the lucky draw. I did some basic online and physical verification of the real estate developer and the proposed site which threw up some red flags. Two months later, I found out that the housing scheme was fake with no DDA connection at all. All my hard-earned money was gone,” said Seth, a single mother.

Pushkar Rawat from Uttam Nagar, who worked in a private company, said he took loans and invested ₹7 lakh in 2018 in a similar proposed housing scheme in Dwarka, after getting reference from a relative. But he sound found himself cheated, when in November he read about the fraud and the arrest of the company’s two office bearers by Delhi Police.

“The company’s office is closed and its executives who processed the flat’s booking and payments have switched off their phones. I am paying nearly ₹6,000 every month as interest for the loan I had taken. I lost my job during the lockdown and am struggling to pay the loan interest and make ends meet,” said Rawat.

Owning a house in Delhi is a dream for many. But like Rawat, Seth and thousands of home buyers, this dream turned into a nightmare after being duped by various developers and promoters, who allegedly tricked them into investing in different housing schemes by fraudulently using the DDA’s land-pooling policy, which is yet to become operational.

In the last one and a half years, Delhi Police’s economic offences wing (EOW) has registered 19 cases of cheating and fraud against various developers and housing society groups. So far, EOW has arrested 13 officer bearers of four companies – Revanta Multi State CGHS Ltd, Aerocity Dwarka, Rudra Welfare Society, and Eminent Officers Welfare Society. Three of the four arrested office bearers of Revanta group are now out on bail, at least three EOW officials probing these cases said.

“The fraudsters had launched web portals and various types of electronic advertisements were being sent to attract homebuyers and dupe them in the name of allotting flats. It was also revealed that a Nigerian gang was also involved in duping people, through online transactions, in the name of the DDA’s land pooling policy. A special investigation team (SIT) was formed to probe the cases,” said one of the officers.

The DDA had notified its land pooling policy for the first time in 2013 and later in 2015. But it is only in 2018, the land-owning agency started work on it. Currently, the DDA is in the process of getting land owners in 95 urbanised villages to come together to pool their land. So far, DDA says 6500 hectares (approx.) of land has been pooled. DDA officials say that they are yet to start planning for its use.

Joint commissioner of police (EOW) OP Mishra said that even as the land pooling policy planning was in the early stage, various builders and promoters have grabbed this as an opportunity to exploit the situation by luring in and duping innocent flat buyers. They often promised flats in Dwarka, Chhawla, Najafgarh and Rohini under the scheme.

“They raised huge amounts for advance bookings in the name of registration and allotment,” he said.

By the time the DDA could learn about this fraud in 2014-15 and begin issuing public notices to warn people to stay away from “any illegal offer of registration of plots or flats under the land pooling policy”, many real estate firms set up their offices in Delhi, mostly in Dwarka and its neighbouring areas, and hundreds of home buyers had already invested their money in various housing schemes, which only existed on “attractive brochures and papers”, the EOW officials said.

Officials said the DDA began receiving complaints from cheated homebuyers in 2018 and the authority contacted the EOW, which by then had also received similar complaints. After preliminary verification, the first case was registered in December 2019 against the Revanta Group, which alone had duped more than 4,000 homebuyers of over Rs450 crore, said the officials.

“The company offered flats in L-Zone Dwarka under the DDA’s land pooling policy, even though the authority had not allotted any land for any housing project there. The company’s founders purchased lands in Dwarka at very high rates – R10 crore per acre against the circle rate of R53 lakh. Land facilitation agencies were incorporated and direct land deals with farmers were avoided to siphon off the funds. One of the members sold his own land posing as a farmer,” said Mishra.

The joint CP said that the company hired facilitation agencies and paid them around ₹115 crore for bringing homebuyers by contacting them through phone calls, text messages and emails.

When contacted, founder member and former president of Revanta group Satender Maan (out on bail) said, “We purchased 48 acres of land using the investors’ money but the problem began when the DDA reduced the floor area ration (FAR) and we informed investors that they will either have to pay more money for the extra land or would get reduced size flats. Many filed police complaints and civil suits. After registering the case, the police freezed our bank accounts and we could not progress in our project.”

When contacted regarding the frauds, the DDA released a statement and said, “DDA has time and again cautioned home buyers and investors against fraudulent practices by some developers and societies to lure people into buying houses under the false pretext of land policy. Any person interested or being given promise of any land or apartments under any land pooling scheme, must go through the instructions and details about the scheme on DDA’s website so as to safeguard their interests and avoid any trap by fraudsters floating and advertising false and fictitious land pooling schemes. DDA is again requesting the aggrieved persons, who have invested in the name of fraudulent land pooling schemes, to approach the EOW and file formal complaints against the fraudsters.”

EOW officials said that there are many victims of similar frauds. “We are doing campaigns to make people aware of this land pooling policy frauds and come forward to file their complaints, if they have been duped,” added Mishra.