The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police has arrested two developers namely Dharmesh Jain and Rajiv Jain, of Nirmal Lifestyle for allegedly failing to hand over the flats to around 34 homebuyers after taking money from them over, police officials confirmed.
According to Mumbai Police officials, the arrests have been made on the basis of the complaint received from 34 homebuyers, involved in real estate projects named Olympia, Panorama and Spirit.
The homebuyers had made bookings since 2011 but did not get possession nor the project has come into existence.
A EOW police official not wishing to be named told Moneycontrol, "We arrested both Dharmesh and Rajeev Jain in connection to First Information Report (FIR) filed in April 2022. We produced them in local court and have got police custody till May 03."
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The official added, "There is one more FIR against the developers in FIR files against them for allegedly not giving possession, and investigation regarding the same is ongoing in those cases too. This FIR was filed by homebuyers in December 2022. This includes projects namely Nirman Zircon etc in the Mulund area of Mumbai."
Nirmal Developers is a prominent real-estate developer from the Mulund area. However, the firm is in trouble owing to financial constraints. The firm has several projects around the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), and possession to homebuyers is allegedly delayed.
In the past, lenders have approached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), alleging unpaid dues running into hundreds of crores of rupees, and the NCLT had held many hearings.
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The Bank of Baroda (BoB) had also taken possession of Nirmal Lifestyle Mall owned by the developer over alleged non-payment of a loan amounting to around Rs 161 crore.
Pankaj Thadani, one of the homebuyers in Nirmal Zircon project of Nirmal Lifestyle said they are also awaiting possession of their dream home for over a decade. We hope to get justice and also possession of our homes at the earliest.
Meanwhile, an email query has been sent to Nirmal Lifestyle for a comment. The copy will be updated after getting their response.
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