Economic Offences Wing probes developer for cheating

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police is investigating four people, including a director of Omkar Real Estate developers in an case of cheating the state of nearly Rs 415 crore. While the FIR alleges that the firm developed a denotified slum area under the Slum Rehabilitation scheme, Omkar Developers has denied all such allegations.

Sources in the EOW said that the incident came to light when Jaynarayan Tiwari (35), a resident of Malad, alleged that seven tenements, including his, had been encroached upon by the developers in 2007. After this, the police had launched an inquiry into the said matter. In 2015, Tiwari had allegedly stated that each tenement was worth Rs 2 crore each, making the total worth Rs 14 crores.

Following this, the EOW had initiated a preliminary inquiry, which lasted for 18 months to determine the role of Omkar Real Estate developers in the said issue. Officials said that the AltaMount project, a residential complex, was being investigated. The complex, spread across 10 acres of land, is located off the Western Express Highway in suburban Malad.

Officials said that the complainant is a resident of Janu Bhoy Nagar of which 300 tenements have alleged that they were cheated by the developers. They added that the status of the said land as a slum was in question. In 2001, a tribunal constituted under the Maharashtra Slum Improvement Board Act was asked to denotify the area as a slum. In this the tribunal allegedly passed an ambiguous order not clarifying whether the area was a slum area or not.

“Since the developers began the project as part of the slum rehabilitation scheme, he availed many benefits. One of them being, obtaining 8,03,515 square feet of free Floor Space Index,” said an officer. He explained that if the land was not a slum area then the developer would have had to buy the said FSI. “They would have to obtain the said FSI at a premium and pay the government. For the aforementioned FSI, they would have to pay Rs 401.78 crore to the government; instead they got it for free,” said an investigator.

The FIR names three people from Janu Bhoy Nagar Society — Gulab Gavhane, secretary; Magan Tak, the president of the society and Pratiraj Yadav, the convenor of society, and an unidentified director of Omkar Real Estate developers.

However, denying the allegations, Omkar Real Estate Developers said, “The area in question (S No 282 CTS 821) was always a slum area. We are developing the area under the Development Control Regulation 33 (10) and scheme is implemented following all process including Survey by Competent Authorities in Slum Area, Issuance of Annexure II and Letter of Intent etc.

However, the Slum Rehabilitation Authority as abundant precaution treated 250 square yards as non-slum area in CTS 821, thereby thwarting attempt of Complainant to hamper smooth implementation of slum redevelopment scheme, which will affect more than 15,000 slum dwellers.”