Forgery allegation rocks REIT deal: SEBI officer’s email faked by Strata SM REIT?

The REIT has got registered with Sebi in January this year but had not launched any SM REIT nor had it migrated any pre-existing fractional real estate entities into the scheme.

But as per the Madras High Court order, a case was filed against the promoter of Strata SM REIT, Sudarshan Lodha, by real estate developer Avigna, for seeking information by allegedly impersonating as a Sebi official. Avigna alleged that an executive of Strata SM REIT impersonated by creating an email ID - richagoel.sebi@gmail.com - in the name of Richa Goel, a Sebi officer. The real estate company shared the information believing it to be genuine query, and once it realised that the email account was fake, the company filed a police complaint.

As per the anticipatory bail order of Madras HC in the matter of Sudarshan Lodha, dated April 22, the complainant is in the business of developing land for industrial and warehousing projects, and had signed a MoU with Strata Property Management Private Limited. As per the MoU, Strata agreed to acquire these projects through several SPVs, but a dispute arose between real estate developer and Strata after the signing of the MoU, and subsequently the matter went for arbitration.

Madras HC bail order copy further reads, “…the investigation revealed that the email ID through which certain information was sought from the defacto complainant did not belong to Richa Goel; that a fake email ID was created on 18.02.2020 and when the IP log details were collected from concerned service providers, it was revealed that service provider ACT Fibrenet Network was used in the fake email ID. The recovery email ID showed the same network, subscriber details and the recovery email ID reveal the phone number belonged to the petitioner, and thus, the petitioner has committed the aforesaid offences and prayed for dismissal of the petition.”

Sudarshan Lodha’s representatives have denied these allegations before the Madras HC, and alleged that since the complainant could not succeed in the arbitration and other civil proceedings, hence, to arm-twist him and to give a criminal colour to the dispute, they have filed a false complaint. Sudarshan Lodha had received anticipatory bail from the high court in this case.

Moneycontrol reached out to Sudharshan Lodha for a comment regarding the story, and he said in a statement, “In light of the ongoing matter, we have voluntarily surrendered our SM REIT licence, without admitting or denying any wrongdoing, as a measure of abundant caution. Upon the conclusion of the current litigations, we intend to apply for a fresh licence at a future date. This matter does not affect the existing investments with Everstrat.”

Sebi has a strict ‘Fit and Proper’ policy for its regulated entities and people managing them.

The SM REIT scheme was approved by Sebi so that people desirous of investing for rental yield can invest in assets of ticket size Rs 50-500 crore. There was a growing unregulated market for fractional ownership in rental properties, and hence Sebi decided to provide a regulated platform for investors.

SM REIT units are required to be listed on stock exchanges with a minimum lot size of 1 unit of Rs 10 lakh, as compared to Rs 10,000-15,000 for normal REITs.