INDIA. Mumbai: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai police on Saturday booked two construction company directors of Zeus Housing and Construction Limited for allegedly duping a 54-year-old Vile Parle resident to Rs 25.19 crore.
The FIR No 433/2022, earlier registered at Sion Police station, was transferred to EOW and was reregistered as FIR No 155/2022.
Based on a complaint filed by Atul Nathalal Patel (52), the FIR was registered against Zeus Housing and Construction Limited and its Directors- Ashit Balwant Doshi (52) and Manish Rameshchandra Shah (58).
According to the complainant, the accused had accepted money from him (who himself is a veteran in the construction business) as an investment for a slum rehabilitation project- “Zeus Residency” (Plot No 290 D, Survey No 11 (Part) ” in Sion-Koliwada in Central Mumbai. The accused promised to give 20 per cent of the constructed area in the proposed building to Patel. But the accused neither gave him the constructed area as promised nor repaid the amount invested.
As per Patel’s complaint, on July 27, 2016, the accused approached him seeking investment for a slum rehabilitation project. They promised him 20 per cent of the constructed area in the project mentioned above.
Accordingly, he invested money in the project. However, after a few years, he realised that the accused had sold off flats from the sellable building keeping him in the dark. The accused had also issued allotment letters to some flat buyers without informing them.
Patel also alleged that in 2016, Shah borrowed 5 kgs of gold from him for some family work. Shah mortgaged two flats (B 2201, B 2202) from the “Zeus Residency” project.
But Shah did not return the borrowed gold and, on the other hand, sold the above two mortgaged flats to one Mahendra Shah without Patel’s knowledge. Patel claimed that Ashit Balwant Doshi and Manish Rameshchandra Shah owe him Rs.25,19,80.726/-
Based on Patel’s complaint, an FIR was registered at the Sion police station against Doshi and Shah under sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. The case was later transferred to the EOW for investigation.
The action against builders was taken under the guidance of the Joint Police Commissioner (EOW) Nishit Mishra and DCP Sangramsinh Niishandar, by Senior inspector Sanjay Kate and PSI Sanjay Patil of the Housing-II unit of EOW. No arrests have been made in the case so far.
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