Police book builders for duping over 50 homebuyers

29/4/2018

PUNE: The Kondhwa Police booked two builders for allegedly cheating over 50 people on the pretext of selling them plots for constructing bungalows at Pisoli since 2015.

The suspects had forged documents to cheat homebuyers. The fraud came to light after one of the investors, Ajit Rajan Kulkarni (36) from Thane, lodged an FIR against the builders.

In his complaint, Kulkarni, an engineer, said he resided at Dattanagar on Ambegaon Road before shifting to Kanjurmarg in Mumbai. He was planning to invest in a property in Pune when he came across an advertisement published in a newspaper announcing the launch of a new housing scheme at Pisoli.

According to the complaint, Kulkarni visited the office of the construction site in 2015 and a sales representative gave him information about the project. He was told by builders and his representatives that 100 plots had been put up for sale, out of which 50 had been booked.

Since Kulkarni liked the project, he decided to purchase a plot measuring 1,037sqft for the construction of a bungalow at a cost of Rs 55 lakh. He paid booking charges of Rs10 lakh by issuing a cheque of Rs 5 lakh each on April 13 and May 20, 2015, in the presence of his father Rajan and brother Amol.

Kulkarni and one of the two builders, who run independent construction firms, signed a memorandum of understanding on a stamp paper of Rs 500. The MoU was signed in the presence of Kulkarni’s wife Manju but the project work did not commence even after two-three months.

According to the complaint, when Kulkarni visited the office of the construction firm, a sales representative told him that the work of obtaining necessary permission was in progress and the construction work would start at the earliest.

Kulkarni was given the same assurance on numerous occasions. He made several attempts to get in touch with the builders but in vain. After collecting information about the project, Kulkarni learned that the land where the proposed project was planned did not belong to the builders and that they had forged documents to cheat him and other homebuyers.

Regarding the delay in lodging the FIR, Kulkarni told pune-news.com over phone, “We were given assurance time and again that the construction work will start but the builders failed to honour their promise.”

Senior inspector Milind Gaikwad of the Kondhwa police said, “The home buyers did not verify the genuineness of the construction firm and project before investing their hard earned money in it. An investigation has been started. We are yet to arrest the builders,” he added.