Eleven home buyers on July 17 filed an FIR with the Halasuru police against promoters and directors of Ozone Urbana and several financial institutions associated with the promoter.
The home buyers complained that the promoter cheated them by entering into an agreement to sell flats under different Ponzi schemes like buy-back scheme, subvention scheme, 2X scheme etc. The housing project was supposed to come up at Kannamangala and Poojanahalli villages of Devanahalli taluk in Bengaluru Rural District.
They complained that flat bookings started in 2015-17 and the construction was not completed as per the committed timeline. They alleged that the promoter received 95 per cent of money from them but failed to complete the construction and deliver the flats as promised. “As per the agreement, the builder is supposed to handover the flats within three years but failed to do so even after three years of the deadline,’’ they said in the complaint to Halasuru Police.
They said that the builder has received around Rs 80 crore from the home buyers but delayed construction for his own interest.
Bipul Bhattacharya, one of the home buyers, said, “I was supposed to get possession of the flat in 2019. The bank disbursed Rs 40 lakh to addition to my 10 per cent down payment. No due diligence and disbursed money without my approval/consent.”
He said that he was under a subvention scheme where the builder has to pay PEMI (paying EMI on principal) till possession but the builder stopped paying it from January 2020. “Banks disbursed money without any verification and later chasing us for payments, sending notices, filing criminal cases. We went to the High Court and got interim stay for PEMI,’’ he said.
“Due to RERA failure, we are seeing more and more builders cheating home buyers, and the government needs to take action,’’ said Dhananjaya Padmanabhachar, Sanchalak, Karnataka Home Buyers Forum.
