07 July,2024 06:29 AM IST | Mumbai | Sanjeev Shivadekar
The Sunshine Infinity building in Wadala West. Pic/Ashish Raje
Two registrations for a single flat. A flat valued around Rs 5 crore near Five Gardens and mortgaged with ICICI Bank has been sold without the financial institute and loan borrowers' knowledge to another buyer, triggering a police case. The RAK Marg police station has registered an FIR against three developers and the latest buyer of the flat, who are said to be employees of this erring developer.
On June 30, an FIR was filed under Indian Penal Code Section 409 - which deals with criminal breach of confidence and wrongful taking of immovable property without the owner's consent - against Kashyap Mehta, Atul Bharani, Ashok Bharani and Ashit Badani.
In 2017, gold jewellery wholesaler Chirag Kamdar and his wife Manjari made a down payment of Rs 25 lakh and secured a loan of R4.20 crore to purchase a 1,200-square-foot flat, No. 1001, at Sunshine Infinity in Wadala. The total price for the flat was approximately Rs 5 crore. The ICICI Bank (Ghatkopar East Branch) disbursed Rs 85 lakh of the sanctioned loan, allowing the couple to register the flat. The remaining balance was to be paid upon the project's completion.
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However, in 2023, when the couple visited the place to take possession of the flat, they found that the property had been sold to another person - Mr Ashit Badani.
"I was surprised to see a flat registered in our name has been sold and registered to another person. I was taken aback and felt cheated," Kamdar added.
Kamdar claimed that before approaching the authorities, they had brought the case to the notice of the people mentioned in the FIR. But, with no sign of resolution to the dispute, they had no choice but to file a case of cheating with the local police station.
Kamdar told mid-day he was surprised and not able to understand how a flat that was registered in his name and mortgaged with the bank was registered again in another party's name that too without obtaining an NOC/loan closure letter from the bank. "Either there is a fault in the registration system or those handling the process are hand in glove in the entire cheating episode. The real facts will surface only after a thorough investigation by the police," he said.
Kamdar alleged that the flat that he owned had been purchased by Ashit Badani, who was an employee of the developer. "The flat worth Rs 5 crore was sold at a much lower price of R3.65 crore. The new owner Akshit Badani paid only Rs 36 lakh and the developer had given him possession of the property. This sounds fishy. This is a clear case of cheating," Kamdar said.
The builder, Kashyap Mehta's lawyer, in his statement, stated that the FIR is baseless and an attempt by rivals who aim to disrupt business activities. "The ultimate intention is to extort money from Mehta and his former partners," the statement read.
The statement further mentioned that Mehta resigned from the Sunshine Group companies in March 2018 and since then has no connection with the Sunshine Group or its entities.
"The complaints came to the fore in 2024, four years after Mehta's resignation. Also, the project has been taken over by SQ Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd, where Mehta has never been a director or associated in any capacity," the letter forwarded to mid-day's query reads.
In fact, Mehta has alleged that the complainant had disappeared after making a payment of around 20 per cent of the agreement value and has failed to make payment of the balance consideration amount of Rs 3,90,00,000 even after receipt of OC for the project.
"Despite a receipt of multiple demand letters and notices being issued to Kamdar, there was no response, following which the agreement sale was terminated following due process and was even offered a refund of the amount paid to Bharani's company by the Kamdar family," the lawyer replied in his statement.
The reply forwarded by the legal team of Mehta stated that they would pursue all legal remedies available to them to counter the fraudulent FIR. Even others named in the FIR concurred with clarification issued by Mehta's legal team and they all claimed that they had been falsely booked in a case and the entire FIR had been done without any evidence to malign image and extort money.
Rs 25L
Down payment made by first owners
