After being on the run for two years and changing around a dozen SIM cards, a 51-year-old developer was on Wednesday arrested by the city economic offences wing (EOW) police from Andheri, where he was staying in a rented flat. The accused, who is involved in five cases, had promised flats to around 60 people in the saleable portion of redeveloped buildings. He has been remanded to police custody till March 9.
A flat buyer, Gopi Kadam, had lodged a police complaint against Amogh Sawant, director of Amogh Enterprises and Adit Enterprises, stating neither was he given a flat nor was the money refunded. According to the complainant, Sawant had taken up a redevelopment project in Nehru Nagar, Kurla. “He took Rs 2.62 crore from as many as 20 buyers and promised them flats in the new building in 2010. He constructed up to four storeys though he had booked flats till the ninth floor. He had got permission only for a four-storey building, but the buyers were kept in the dark,” said an officer.
Besides, even existing owners, whose houses were demolished, stopped receiving rent from Sawant after a few years. In 2018, a complaint was lodged against him. The EOW has received two similar complaints from other police stations, while the Nehru Nagar and Tilak Nagar police stations are probing one case each.
EOW chief Rajvardhan Sinha formed a team comprising DCP Parag Manere, senior inspector Ramchandra Lotlikar and sub-inspector Balwant Patil to nab Sawant. The total amount in the three EOW cases is around Rs 10 crore.
In another case, the EOW on Wednesday arrested Shakoor Shaikh (55), a real estate agent, for promising to help buyers get flats in under-construction buildings at Bhandup, Oshiwara, Nahur and Mulund. He, along with a wanted accused, submitted fake electricity bills to prove the buyers stayed in the old building which had undergone redevelopment. The accused had collected more than Rs 1.15 crore from 16 buyers. After collecting the money in 2011, he and the co-accused disappeared.
