News: Notice served to Emaar India, banks over false information layout-26-06-2023
The economic offences wing (EOW) of Delhi Police has issued a notice to the chairman of a realty major, its director, and former managing director of its India operations, along with heads of three different banks and financial institutions, for alleged cheating and forgery in connection with a group housing project in Sector 83.
The notice was sent on Wednesday after complaints from homebuyers that the developer — Emaar India — misrepresented the layout of the project at the time of booking with the purpose of extracting a very high premium and preferred location charges (PLC) from the allottees by showing land owned by a private individual and a village road as part of the project, Palm Gardens. The developer allegedly also altered the green areas of the project after booking
Palm Gardens was launched by Emaar Group’s India subsidiary in 2010
Possession of the flats was supposed to be given in 2015. The project was delayed after buyers started to file complaints alleging that banks disbursed home loans to them despite irregularities in the project.
An FIR was registered by the Delhi Police EOW on Tuesday under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (forgery) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC. Along with Emaar, the directors of banks and other institutions who financed the project were also made a party in the case.
The notice was issued to Emaar Group chairman Mohamed Alabbar, its director Haroon Saeed Siddique and former India MD Hadi Badri, as well as 23 others.
An Emaar India spokesperson said, “The matter pertains to a civil suit filed by homebuyers against banks from whom they had availed loan for properties worth around Rs 1 crores; wherein Emaar officials have been made a party to the matter. The dispute is primarily of civil nature, and sub-judice. We are following the due process of law and extending our full support and cooperation for fair and just investigation in the matter.”
Manish Kumar Patni, a DLF 3 resident and another homebuyer, said: “The developer changed the green areas of the project which were shown at the time of the booking of apartments. We came to know that the accused persons did not obtain requisite permission and approvals while selling the flats. Despite several requests, the company failed to provide copies of the permissions.”
