An FIR has been registered on a complaint by a group of eight homebuyers with the Economic Offence Wing (EoW) of Delhi Police against a realtor alleging it usurped their money through fraudulent practices. One of the allegations was that the builder had promised flats facing scenic beauty but when the homebuyers visited the ready apartments, they were shocked to see that some of them faced a functional crematorium.
However, the builder – Puri Construction – has denied all allegations. It claimed the complaint was false and the buyers have ulterior motives.
Homebuyers have accused the builder of misleading them with fraudulent intent while selling luxurious flats in an upcoming group housing complex ‘Emerald Bay’ in Sector 104 in Gurugram, Haryana in early 2013.
The project was supposed to have nine multi-storied towers, each consisting of 30 floors with facilities such as the top-of-a-line mega gym, floodlit tennis and badminton courts, meditation room, swimming pool, kids pool, multipurpose hall, skating park and a convenient shopping complex along with scenic beauties and landscaping equivalent to a seven-star hotel.
With all these promised facilities, they claimed, the builder at the time of collecting the booking amount in January 2013, presented a very attractive layout plan but all those turned out to be hollow promises when the project got ready.
The FIR citing the complaint alleges that even after spending several crores of rupees, these flats are not livable even after 10 years due to pathetic location, lack of basic amenities such as water, sanitation etc and poor quality of construction.
An official spokesperson from Puri Construction refuted the allegations and said that the project, which was completed and received an occupation certificate in 2018, has over 350 families residing at present.
“The company is in full compliance with all applicable laws. The present complaint has been filed with ulterior motives as a couple of complainants have already executed conveyance deeds in their favour,” the spokesperson said.
He added, “Though the complaint is false still the company is ready to refund the amount received from the complainants but in the garb of an FIR, they have demanded exorbitant amounts.”
Homebuyers allege that since the beginning, the builder’s intent was dubious as at the time of paying the booking amount, the company promised to deliver flats in 36 months, but within a month, at the time of signing the application form, it changed the duration to 48 months.
They state that Puri Construction signed the builder-buyer agreement (BBA) almost after a year when 30 per cent payment had been made.
“Thus by these dishonest tactics, the accused persons unilaterally gave themselves an extension of about a year, while sitting on the money of the helpless complainants,” the complaint claimed, alleging that the builder changed several conditions in BBA which he had promised at the time of booking.
These eight buyers paid a total of 10.5 crores for their respective flats. They say that in 2013, the company assured them that they had all the requisite approvals and sanction plans, however, they learned in 2019 that the company amended the plan in 2017 saying that it had buyers’ approval.
“In fact, at the time of documentation, the accused persons made the complainants sign various blank papers. It is now evident that these signatures on blank papers have been misused by the accused persons to create forged documents to show alleged consent on the part of the Complainants for change of layout/ building plans,” the FIR alleges.
The buyers claim that after fraudulently amending the building plan, various common recreational facilities and features were shown as ‘Future Expansion’ and by doing this, the original project, which was spread over 17 acres, has been actually reduced to 11 acres.
The builder has countered it and said, “No blank papers were ever signed by any allottee and these allegations are baseless as documentation was done in 2013-14 and now, in 2023, baseless allegations are being made. The project is till date for 17 acres and some towers are yet to be launched.”
The buyers say that the most shocking fact is that the licences to construct buildings on the said land were issued in the name of Florentine Estates and Step Reality Pvt Ltd, and the authorities concerned, the Department of Town and Country Planning (DTCP), didn’t grant any permission to Puri Construction to collaborate with the licence holding companies to construct or market it.
“Puri Constructions Pvt Ltd had no authority to develop, construct and market the High-End Villas/Apartments in the name of Emerald Bay and accept money from the public. Clearly, the accused has cheated by playing fraud on innocent unsuspecting people. They have thus violated the provisions of Haryana Development & Regulations of Urban Areas Act, 1975,” the complaint alleges.
The builder has rejected this allegation too and said that Florentine Estates is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Puri and Step Realty is a land collaborator.
The complainants alleged that the builder had claimed that the entire project was free from all encumbrances/charge or liability but “the complainants only later found out that Florentine Estates India Ltd as well as Puri Constructions had created charge and availed huge finances of over 150 crores on the entire project including lands with their bankers ICICI Bank, Axis Bank & PNB Housing Finance Ltd,” the FIR said.
The builder has rejected the allegations saying there is no loan on land or projects.
