Mumbai: Probe ordered against developer, 39 flat owners

The Neelkanth Kingdom complex in Vidyavihar West has seven towers

The Vikhroli Metropolitan Magistrate has directed the Ghatkopar police to investigate the allegations made in a private criminal complaint by a resident of Neelkanth Kingdom, a sprawling residential complex of seven buildings in Vidyavihar (W). Complainant Stuti Galiya, a solicitor and advocate, has accused the developer and a handful of residents of forging the signatures of her and other residents to show 80 per cent occupancy and fraudulently take water connection from BMC in 2013. She says the occupancy in the high-rises was 10-20 per cent then.

Galiya, who owns a flat in one of the towers, said she moved the court last year after the civic body did not take action on her written complaints. The court has asked the police to submit an investigation report by December 4, when the matter will be heard next.

In her over-500-page complaint, Galiya has named 39 flat owners for allegedly conniving with the developer to fraudulently get the water connection. She said the project was launched in 2005 and buyers were to get possession of flats in 2008, but the project remained stalled till 2010 due to disputes among its three partners. The buildings were ready in 2012-13, she said in her complaint.

"Today, even after more than 15 years of the launch of the project, the project is pending to be completed, as certain amenities, such as clubhouse, swimming pool, derasar, etc are still not provided. The project has still not received Occupation Certificate [OC] and none of the flat owners has received valid legal possession of the flats even till date. All the 7 residential buildings are surviving on water connection which has been procured on humanitarian grounds from the BMC," she said.

Criminal conspiracy

In her complaint, Galiya alleged that the builder handed over possession of flats, despite not having OC, over mounting legal and political pressure. Since the project had invited a lot of negative publicity, its unsold units - worth Rs 150-200 crore - had piled up.

"This illegal water connection was then used by the developer to further augment the sale of the pending inventory and to convince the existing flat owners to occupy the flats. Most of the flat owners had no clue that the water connection which was received was on humanitarian grounds and the impression generally was that permanent water connection was procured for the complex and that OC should be received soon," she alleged.

In her private criminal complaint under Section 190 (1) (A) and Section 200 of the Criminal Procedure Code, she named 58 people accusing them of committing forgery, criminal conspiracy, cheating, impersonation, fraud and criminal breach of trust.

RTI exposes the lie

The advocate said she learnt about the allegedly illegal water connection in 2019. "When I inspected the water connection application procured during the RTI proceedings, I was shocked to notice that my signatures in the water connection application were forged. My signatures were inserted in Gujarati when I can't even read and write in Gujarati. I noticed that signatures of most of the flat owners were forged [some of whom were even listed corporate entities]. The water connection application included signatures of flat owners who had died a long time back. All this was done to prove 80 per cent occupancy of the complex before the BMC and to illegally procure water connection. The fact of the matter was that the complex was not even 20 per cent occupied in 2013. It is a matter of common sense that people will be reluctant to occupy in the absence of a basic necessity like water," she said.

Whistleblower reveals

Galiya said she doesn't want the innocent flat owners to bear the brunt of the regulator. She said she has also approached other judicial and regulatory authorities to resolve the water connection issue. She alleged that some of the flat owners named in her complaint have committed more wrongdoings. "The criminal activities include opening of illegal bank accounts which were closed after RBI investigations, procuring fake PAN cards, extorting money and illegal society formation for which separate cases are already filed against them in various forums," said Galiya, adding, "The only interest I have is that legitimate and permanent water connection should be received for the entire project by regularising the water connection obtained fraudulently and getting the wrongdoers punished."

58
No. of people named in Stuti Galiya's complaint

2013
Year the water connection was given by BMC