GURGAON: The city police have lodged an FIR against a builder for duping customers of several lakhs of rupees in a housing project which was to come up near Ullahwas village.
The builders - M/s AJS Builders Ltd, a Delhi-based real estate developer - had invited bookings in April 2007 for residential units in an upcoming multi-storey housing project under the banner - Hill View Apartments.
However, according to the investigating officer, the land is still vacant and no construction has been done at the site except for an unfinished sample flat.
We received a complaint from one of the customers who had made a booking for the flat and had paid Rs 6.48 lakh at the time of booking in April 2007. The complainant paid another installment of Rs 6.48 in March 2008 for his 2,400 square-feet apartment in the society," said Gurgaon police commissioner, S S Deswal.
The builder issued a receipt on March 18, 2008, to confirm the complainant's booking of flat number E-402. "According to the complainant, when he asked the builder to refund the money, they instead sent him a notice that he pays pending installments to avoid any cancellation of allotment," added the police chief.
The FIR has been lodged against the managing director and owner Madhu Singh, director Kailash Rani and Harvinder Singh, an immediate subordinate to Madhu Singh.
The FIR, lodged at Badshapur police station, is registered under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) against the defaulting trio.
"During our investigations, it has also come to light that the builder had started inviting people for booking flats much before he was sanctioned an authorized licence to even construct.
The builders got their licence only in April 2008 which expired in March 2010, the time to hand over the possessions of units to individuals.
However, they had invited bookings through advertisements a year ago, in April 2007 itself," asserted Deswal.
The police findings further states that "the money collected from buyers is being misused by the builder for personal use".
However, the police have yet to make any arrests regarding this matter.
Source:TOI