Nine flats sold to 18 people in Khar scheme, builder booked for Rs 15 crore fraud

MUMBAI: The economic offences wing (EOW) has launched an inquiry into a Rs 15.2 crore cheating case in which a developer is accused of selling nine flats in a building in Khar to 18 people who do not know one another. The developer is likely to be arrested soon, said the police.
A 43-year-old businessman, Om Prakash Chendnani, filed the police complaint.Chendnani said the developer had promised him a flat in Ramkrishna Nagar when he made his booking in 2007.
“The developer is alleged to have shown Chendnani forged work commencement certificates and taken the money,” a police officer said. “The complainant invested the money and when he visited the builder asking for the flat he found the work was not completed. He also learnt that the flat booked in his name was sold to another buyer too.”
Some of the flat buyers had nearly completed formalities like registration and payment of stamp duty.
“We are taking such cases on priority basis since several city builder are duping people like this,” the officer said.
The police found the commencement certificate sho-wn to the buyer was a temporary one. The developer had taken Rs 1.75 crore from the complainant, said the police.
“During investigation we found that the developer has done partial construction and was demanding more money from the buyers,” an EOW officer said. “He did the registration at the initial stage and is now not even completing the construction work. It’s a serious offence and we have booked the developer and his associates for cheating and forgery.”
Police teams are now busy recording the statements of those who lost money.
“We are collecting evidence against the accused and will arrest all those involved,” a police officer said. “ This is a serious crime involving life’s savings of people and we will take it to its final conclusion.”
The police are likely to summon the accused for recording of statement next week. A thorough preliminary inquiry was carried out in the case before filing the FIR.