mumbai

Updated: Sep 02, 2018 23:42 IST

The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) officials of the city police on Friday arrested Sandeep Seth and Dharmesh Tanna, two partners of KT Group, a realty developer firm, for allegedly duping 60 families in Dahisar to the tune of ₹36 crore in the name of redeveloping their property.

According to the EOW, the complainant, 73-year-old Mahadev Panchal, in his complaint in June had stated that Borivli-based KT Group’s three partners had taken redevelopment work of the building Dahisar Ujjwal Co-operative Housing Society (CHS), in Kandarpada, Dahisar, in 2007.

“60 members of the society were promised houses in the redeveloped ground-plus-13-storey tower, while the rest of the homes in the other building would be put up for sale. The redevelopment agreement was prepared and registered as per procedure. But the construction stopped in October 2015,” Panchal said. “The redeveloped building was supposed to be ready in three years, but it is still under construction.”

Panchal, in his FIR, said the developers agreed to mortgage up to six flats in the Mehek Plaza building in Borivli, worth ₹12 crore, with the tenants but later breached trust by selling them and 39 other houses to other customers, thus cheating the original tenants of ₹36 crore.

Sunil Khanolkar, one of the members of the redevelopment society, said, “We transferred development rights to the developer to carry out construction on a total of 5,302 square metres but he flouted laws and developed a total of 7,155 square metres, illegally sold some flats and made money.”

“The developers stopped giving us rent from July 1, 2016. We were the actual owners of the property. The developer developed houses on it, made profits and left us homeless. We have been living on rent, paying from our own pocket,” Panchal said.

Khanolkar said most of the affected families comprised of retired pensioners who received a pension of ₹10,000-₹15,000 a month. “One can imagine how we are managing to pay rent and manage other expanses in a city like Mumbai. Our lives are destroyed completely,” he said.

The housing unit of EOW has charged Sandeep Seth and Dharmesh Tanna of KT Group under sections 409, 420 and 34 of IPC and 3, 4 and 13 of Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act (MOFA).

“There is no money in the bank accounts of the accused. They have circulated money. Further investigation will look into where exactly they routed the money. They are remanded in police custody by the court up to September 7,” said an officer part of the investigation.