FIRs against Mumbai-based builder for duping flat buyers in two projects; lookout notice issued

Mumbai, Jan 17 (PTI) Police have registered two separate cases against a Mumbai-based builder, his wife, business partners and others in the metropolis and neighbouring Navi Mumbai for allegedly duping flat buyers, officials said on Wednesday. The Mumbai police have also issued a lookout notice against the builder Lalit Tekchandani and his business partners in his company Supreme Constructions in this connection, they said.

In Mumbai, the first information report (FIR) was filed against Tekchandani, his wife Kajal, and Arun Makhijani, Manulla Kanchwala, Meeza Hasan Ebrahim along with the directors of the construction company at the Chembur police station on Tuesday, an official said. Heera Meghraj Jadhwani said in his complaint that he had invested Rs 36 lakh in Tekchandani’s Hex City project at Taloja in Navi Mumbai. Company executive Makhijani told him that the project would be ready in 2017.

However, its construction stopped suddenly in 2016, it said. Hundreds of flat buyers invested in Tekchandani’s project, but they neither got the flats nor received their money back, the complaint said. “The police have issued a lookout notice against Tekchandani and his business partners after the FIR under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and others was registered,” an official added.

The second FIR was registered at the Taloja police station against Tekchandani and others on Tuesday, It says that 160 people were duped by the accused to the tune of Rs 44 crore in a housing project of the company at Kharghar in Navi Mumbai, another official said.