Five builders held for cheating

The Malad police arrested five builders late on Saturday night in connection with an FIR lodged last year. The five accused run two real estate companies and had lured as many as 16 people in 2010 on the pretext of providing them houses at a low rate on Malad Link Road and had taken as much as Rs 10 crore from them.

Confirming the arrests, an officer from Malad police station told The Asian Age that despite taking money from the complainants, the accused have not given them possession of their houses till date. Following the delay in possession, the complainants had lodged a police complaint in April 2015 and the police eventually arrested all the five accused from the Malad area late on Saturday night. They were later produced in court on Sunday and remanded in police custody for a day.

The arrested people have been identified as as Dinesh Nahta, Vipin Saklecha and Kamal Vyas, who are all associated with Sanjoy Developers, and Mahamad Badgujar and Babu Badgupar of Soni and Associate Partners. According to the police, the complainants had met the accused in 2010 and the latter had lured them on the pretext of providing flats on Malad Link Road at a cheap rate.

Following this, the complainants paid a total of almost Rs 10 crore to the accused and were promised that they would get possession of their houses within 36 months from the date of payment. But no construction work had been started at the promised site till late 2014.