Maharashtra: CID to investigate Karrm developers housing scam

Pump room below the overhead water tank constructed by the developer

The Bombay High Court has ordered the state's director general of police to transfer the case of Karrm Developers, who allegedly duped over 11,500 flat buyers in different projects to the economic offences wing (EOW) of the state CID. The decision came in recently after the court's suggestion to resolve the dispute through mitigation between the aggrieved customers and the developers did not yield any result.

Karrm Developers allegedly sold flats in the housing complex to unsuspecting buyers using forged documents

Upset with the police's shoddy investigation, the flat buyers accused the police of shielding the main perpetrators of the housing scam, despite sufficient evidence. mid-day had written a series of articles on the scam and in its article titled, ‘Another housing scam involving 11,500 homes, hangs fire in high court,' dated August 21, had highlighted project sanctioned with forged papers running into thousands of crores on the lines of Vasai Virar housing scam.'

The complaint
In the criminal writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution before the Bombay High Court, the petitioners (nineteen of them) along with many other flat purchasers (mostly from the lower middle class) have been deceived by Karrm Infrastructure Private Limited and its directors into purchasing flats in their projects - Karrm Residency at Dhasai village, Shahpur, Karrm Panchtatva at Kasagaon, Shahpur and Karrm Brahmaand at Kelwe Road, Palghar. The writ petition further stated that FIRs have been registered at various police stations, however, for reasons best known, no further action whatsoever is being taken against the said accused by the respective investigating officers of the police stations concerned.

Offences to be clubbed together
The public prosecutor informed the court that offences related to the three housing projects would be clubbed together and investigated by the Superintendent of Police Pankaj Deshmukh. The Thane police have already initiated an inquiry against the errant police officials attached to Shahpur, Naupada and Saphale police stations. A DCP rank official from EOW, Thane police, has been appointed to conduct the inquiry against them.

Main accused still evading arrest
The whistleblower in the case, Prabhuram Giri, 60, who has been fighting for the rights of all the flat buyers in Karrm projects informed mid-day said, "The main masterminds in the entire projects, continue to evade arrest. Out of the six persons shown as accused in the case the police have arrested only two. The police have done nothing to arrest the masterminds, who are still moving freely and continue to dupe thousands of innocent flat buyers to the tune of hundreds of crores."

No action against banks, adminis
Giri said, "Financial institutions and banks associated directly or indirectly with the project, had given multiple loans to the same flats without any verification or title search. Moreover, this financial institution did not even bother to do their due diligence before the disbursement of the loan amount to the developer. Besides, the CIBIL many flat buyers have been adversely affected as they stopped paying EMI due to the project coming to a halt."

Giri said that they had demanded an enquiry into the alleged role of the Gram Panchayat and other local administrative and revenue officials who had connived with the developer and did not take action against the developer for using fake and forged documents to lure the customers, by showcasing agricultural land as non-agricultural land. Besides, the commencement certificate and other statutory permissions have not been obtained by the developer for some of the projects, which were still under construction. "Unfortunately, neither the investigating police nor the court has considered our plea to take action against them," said Giri.

What next?
"We are hopeful that the newly appointed state CID official will do a thorough investigation, and would also expand its scope of investigation by bringing the banks, financial institutions, gram panchayat and revenue officials also under its probe and collect evidence against the alleged brains behind the housing scam under the banner of Karrm. We had even moved MahaRERA, but nothing happened. We have faith in the Bombay High Court and are hopeful that justice will be done to safeguard the interest of the common man who had invested their life savings to buy a dream home almost a decade ago and it still remains a dream," Giri said. The matter will be now listed for directions in the high court and will come up for hearing on January 31, 2024.