Five developers siphon off Rs 6 crore in Ahmedabad housing scam

The complaint regarding anomaly against the developers was filed on Tuesday including three others including a manager of a financial firm in Mumbai.

In Ahmedabad the economic offences wing of the crime branch has filed a complaint of cheating and forgery against five developers for allegedly tapping off Rs 6 crore with the deception of floating a housing scheme. The housing scheme was announced in June 2019 but it never the light of the day.

The complaint regarding anomaly against the developers was filed on Tuesday including three others including a manager of a financial firm in Mumbai.

Five developers are Prabat Rabari and Hamir Desai from Banaskantha and Pravin Desai, Alkesh Desai and Mahesh Rabari from Patan as informed by the crime branch. According to city crime branch officers including the five developers a valuer, Kalpesh Prajapati from Patan, a land broker Dilip Shah from Ranip in the city and a former GM of India Home Loan Limited Rushabh Yagnik from Chandkheda devised the plot to cheat. Sources in police said that the accused persons took loans in the names of 32 plot holders for the housing scheme in Bhabhar of Banaskantha district.

They had initially taken a loan of Rs 4 crore in the names of the 32 plot holders in June 2019 for which they paid EMIs of about Rs 47 lakh for a few months and then later, they stopped paying the EMIs and accumulated debt of Rs 6.18 crore from India Home Loan Limited headquartered in Mulund of Mumbai. Its regional office is in Navrangpura in Ahmedabad said crime branch officers.

The FIR filed with the city crime branch said that the accused persons never built a single house on the land and used the entire money for their personal expenses.

Sources in police said that Prabat, Hamir, Pravin and Alkesh had floated a firm named ‘Fortune Realties’ and in 2016 took a loan for a housing scheme in Patan. The developers were in constant touch with Yagnik who helped them get the loan on the fake scheme.

When the company’s auditors checked the place in Bhabhar, they found that no house had been built.

Then the managing director of the firm, Mahesh Pujara, approached police and filed a complaint of cheating, forgery, and criminal conspiracy. The cops have arrested Parbat, Yagnik, Prajapati, and Shah in the case.