New Delhi: The year 2019 will be probably be most remembered for the kind of drama unfolded on the regulatory front in the real estate industry, especially for the action by the police in chasing the arresting the builders across the country.
The year 2019 saw some of the most dramatic chases of builders and their arrests and re-arrests across the country. In some cases, the rearrested builders even died.
A builder in Dombivili (Mumbai) Jagdish Wagh was arrested by Mumbai police for cheating CKP Bank to the tune of Rs 30 crore. He had failed in repaying loans to bank for two flats and a plot of land and then sold the properties to different buyers without informing the bank. Few days after arrest, he escaped the police custody when he was being taken to hospital for treatment. However, he was rearrested near Mumbai airport couple of days later. He was again sent to hospital for treatment of gangrene. As luck would have it, Wagh died during the treatment as he was heavily diabetic and doctors had to amputate his leg for prevention of spread of gangrene.
In yet another incident of Bollywood-like chase, Vidur Bhardwaj, Director of real estate firm 3C was arrested from Noida-Delhi border. Based on a tip-off of his whereabouts, Noida Administration officials lay in wait for Bhardwaj near his office in Noida. Bhardwaj spotted the officials and tried to run away in his Mercedes car. The officials chased him in their Mahindra Scorpio vehicle. Bhardwaj was just about to cross over to Delhi at Delhi-Noida border at Kalindi Kunj where Noida Administration officials were waiting for him in plain clothes and got the better of him. One of the other directors of the firm Surpreet Suri was arrested from the office of the company earlier after someone tipped off about his presence to the officials. Both had been dodging the administration for over a year as 3C defaulted on dues to more than Rs 100 crore. Bhardwaj was particularly arrested over a recovery certificate of Rs 34 crore against him.
Action was also taken against builders in Shahberi area of Greater Noida where illegal buildings had collapsed in 2018 killing nine people. Delhi-based builder Jasveer Singh Mann was arrested for building and selling 250 flats illegally in Shahberi. A month later, another builder Usman Qureshi was also picked up by the Police for constructing and selling apartments in the same area. Both had built multi-storyed apartments on land belonging to Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) without taking any approval and selling the property to people without informing them that the land belonged to GNIDA. As many as 86 FIRs have been filed for illegal buildings in Shahberi and action has been taken against 42 builders under the Gangsters Act. One of the builders has been detained under the National Security Act.
Another builder of Greater Noida, Vinay Jain, was arrested for selling the same flat to many buyers. Jain is the promoter of AVJ Heights group and had built AVJ Society in Surajpur area of Greater Noida. He sold one of the flats in the society for many people. He was on the run for more than one year after several cases of fraud were filed against him in Gautam Buddh Nagar.
Arrests happened as far as Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh.
Several builders of the Maradu properties in Kerala were arrested for conspiracy, cheating and corruption. Guwahati-based builder Milan Saikia was arrested from Arunchal Pradesh for selling a flat to a buyer which was under mortgage with Union Bank.
Builders were also arrested for violating rules laid down for construction by civic authorities. Salim Ali Maksood Ali was arrested for violating civic norms and carrying out various illegal construction activities in Thane (Mumbai).
With several lakhs of Repuees worth of loans pending for the builders to pay, 2020 could see far more arrests and regulatory action.