Bldr, son held for cheating buyers of 36cr in ‘failed' SoBo project
Mumbai: Well-known developers
Ramesh Shah
(65) and his son
Rahul Shah
(40) of
Radius Sumer Developers
were arrested by city police's Economic Offences Wing Friday on charges of luring 78 flat buyers to invest in a housing project in Mazagaon, failing to develop it and cheating them out of Rs 35.7 crore, reports S Ahmed Ali.
EOW's general cheating unit arrested the father-son duo from their plush apartment in Gamdevi and produced them before the special MPID court, which remanded them to police custody.
The complainant is Mahesh Mirani and his non-resident Hong Kong-based brother, Purushottam, who accused the developers and its director, Sanjay Rajkumar Chhabria, of defrauding them since 2016 by luring them to invest in the failed 'Harbor Heights' project.
The arrested father-son duo of Ramesh Shah (65) and his son Rahul Shah (40) of Radius Sumer Developers have been charged with cheating under Section 420 of the IPC and under the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act. Besides Mahesh and Purushottam Mirani, there are 77 other investors who invested or booked flats in the project, which was never developed, said investigating officer Ravindra Avhad.
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Mirani, a resident of Bandra West and proprietor of Metro Impex, claimed that he and his brother were lured into investing in the under-construction project during an exhibition in Hong Kong in late 2016. The project was promoted as a lucrative opportunity for NRIs seeking investment in Indian real estate.
Following an in-person meeting with Chhabria and Rahul Shah in Feb 2017, the brothers entered into an MoU through their partnership firm, Metro Investment.
The deal involved purchasing 18,181 sq ft of carpet area at Rs 28,875 per sq ft, amounting to a total of Rs 52.5 crore. An advance of Rs 21.95 crore was made via official banking channels and it was documented through tax receipts, allotment letters, and booking forms.
The MoU included a two-year lock-in period, with provisions for a refund if the developer failed to obtain a commencement certificate (CC) up to the 25th floor of Tower 3.
However, even by 2019, only a plinth-level certificate was issued. Consequently, a cancellation agreement was signed in April 2019. As per the new agreement, the developer issued eight cheques totalling Rs 35.7 crore, including interest and taxes.
However, all cheques were dishonoured due to insufficient funds in the developer's bank account, leading to claims of deliberate default and fraud. Mirani alleged that despite repeated assurances and documented agreements, Radius Sumer Developers neither progressed with the construction nor returned the invested funds.
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