Kashimira builder held for not giving apartments in time

Mumbai: The Thane (rural) police has arrested the partner of a construction firm in Kashimira on charges of allegedly accepting money from hundreds of homebuyers but failing to hand over apartments within the stipulated time frame.

The accused, Sangeeta Hegde, who was arrested late on Sunday night, has been booked under the relevant sections of Maharashtra Ownership Flats (Regulation of the promotion of construction, sale, management and transfer) Act and the cheating and forgery sections of the Indian Penal Code. Another accused Bhupat Lukhi had been arrested earlier. However, their third alleged accomplice Dahyabhai Sutaria, who has also been named in the first information report (FIR), is yet to be arrested.

The construction company in 2010 had launched two phases of Tanvi Eminence — a proposed 22-storey structure that would have become one of the biggest projects in the city — with a promise of handing over apartments in 2013. Hundreds of investors and home seekers booked flats in the project, many of who have paid up to 85 per cent of the flat cost to the construction company. After work was completed till the 10th floor in the first phase, construction came to a grinding halt in 2013, even as there was no sign of the second phase. Despite several assurances by the developer, construction at the site failed to resume even in 2017. Fed up with false promises by the builders, hundreds of disgruntled homebuyers had launched a protest against the builders at the Tanvi Eminence building in Kashimira last month.

The case was handed over to the local crime branch unit, which following investigations, arrested the two partners. “The accused has been remanded to police custody till October 24, after she was produced before the district sessions court, Thane on Monday,” said an investigating officer. Internal disputes between the partners is said to be the reason behind the project being stalled.