The economic offences wing(EoW) of Delhi Police has registered an FIR against the owners and senior management of Prateek Group after a group of 20 homebuyers accused the Noida-based realtor of cheating them.
The FIR – which followed a complaint by the 20 buyers of Prateek Edifice in Sector 107 – named the owners Prashant and Prateek Tiwari, and senior managers Sunil Kumar Mittal and Anshuman Sharma. According to the police document, the developers orchestrated a fraud of more than Rs 190 crore.
The complainants alleged that the 423 flats that were sold in Edifice were 10-12% smaller in size than what they had been charged for.
“The flats delivered to us were significantly smaller in size than what was promised to us. An architect was appointed to carry out a survey after we approached the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) against the developer. They did not just give us smaller flats, but also carried out construction beyond the sanctioned plan without taking any consent from us,” said Rajeev Goyal, a complainant.
Prateek Group was also accused of collecting Rs 12.8 crore as one-time lease rent from flat owners when the amount payable to Noida Authority was Rs 6.4 crore. According to the buyers, the developer did not even pay the amount to the Authority.
The realtor also delayed handover of flats. Goyal said the flat he had booked in April 2012 was promised for Dec 2015, but the possession date was pushed by a year.
The flat was, however, delivered only in Feb 2019 although Goyal claimed he had paid 95% of the total cost by May 2016. “Eventually, we were handed possession after NCDRC asked the developer to hand over flats within three weeks. Many facilities and amenities promised to us were not delivered. There were a lot of pending work, defects and deficiencies in workmanship, construction, finishing, fittings, and fixtures in the flats,” Goyal added.
The FIR alleged that Prateek Group collected over Rs 9 crore from flat owners as IFMS (Interest-Free Maintenance Security) but did not refund this amount to the association of owners despite notices from the Authority. The developer also charged more for grid electricity, meter connection, WiFi, cooking gas security and sewer connections, buyers claimed.
Goyal said that though common prepaid electricity sub-meters were calibrated and energised in April 2019, developers started to recover fixed charges for grid and DG power with effect from Jan 2019. The builder also charged Rs 18.8 lakh towards purported water charge arrears, according to the FIR.
The complainants alleged that the company misused prepaid sub-meters installed in flats to illegally recover charges for water and electricity.
A spokesperson for Prateek Group said the developer had not received any communication from police so far. “The flat owners who lodged the complaint have already been given possession of flats. Additionally, registration and possession of flats is over. Further action will be taken once we get all the information,” the spokesperson added.