A Delhi court has directed registration of an FIR against a builder for offences of fraud and criminal breach of trust on allegations of duping a man of Rs 1.3 crore between August 2019 and July 2021 on the pretext of selling a floor to them in Bara Hindu Rao.
On October 9, Delhi Police informed the court of metropolitan magisterate Arjinder Kaur that in compliance with the court order of last month, the FIR has been registered under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
The petitioner, Masud Alam, alleged that two accused-Mohammad Gulfam Qureshi and Anshul Goel-pressured him to pay the amount threatening that they would forfeit the advance amount of Rs 10 lakh. The petitioner added that the property was later sealed by MCD.
“Qureshi represented that he had extensive goodwill and experience in building construction line and being a man of repute in the said field, he would develop the said property, including the third floor with all fitting, fixtures, flooring, etc, in a time-bound manner,” the petitioner stated.
Following this, Alam agreed to purchase the third floor of the said property for Rs 1.3 crore and gave Rs 10 lakh as advance money in August 2019. Later, Qureshi delayed the construction and sought extensions on one pretext or the other. Despite the delay, Qureshi kept pressuring Alam to make the payments, threatening to cancel the agreement to sell and forfeit the amount paid. Having no other option, the complainant kept on making the payments to Qureshi.
In September 2021, when Alam visited the said property, he was shocked to learn that the said property had been sealed by the municipal corporation. The accused told him that there were some dues of property tax because of which the property had been sealed and that they would easily get it de-sealed by clearing the dues. However, despite repeated requests made by the complainant, the accused persons neither got the property de-sealed nor got the remaining work done.
