Mumbai: The Mumbai Police has filed a cheating and forgery case against a developer for duping a Nagpur based farmer of Rs 16.96 crore in a Malabar hill redevelopment project which was a Waqf property.
According to the First Information Report (FIR) of the Mumbai Police Economic Offence Wing (EoW) registered at Tardeo police station, real estate developer Lalit Mohanlal Jain Parel in 2019 had allegedly lured Nagpur based farmer Maheshkumar Hargovind Goyal, 50 to invest in a redevelopment project at Forjett Hill Road, Cumballa, Malabar Hill.
Jain a resident of Lower Parel and promoter of Safeway Projects Pvt Ltd allegedly prepared forged property card to gain confidence of the farmer Mageshkumar Goyal promising 45% returns on investments in the redevelopment project in prime Malabar hill.
“The accused made bogus papers of a Waqf property and took Rs 17 crore investments for redevelopment and started avoiding the complainant citing delays in civic approvals and Covid lockdown,” said a senior EOW official.
The developer had made bogus registration papers giving 45% shares in the proposed redevelopment project to Goyal. Later Jain asked Goyal to revise the agreement with 25% shares and 18 interest on the total investment of Rs 16.96 crore required for construction. The farmer gave the first instalment of Rs 12.50 crore in May 2019 to Jain and additional Rs 3.46 crore for alleged costs overruns.
“Jain took investments jn several tranches by cheques and cash between 2019 and 2023 citing payments to suppliers, architects, contractors and BMC,” said Goyal.
After waiting 8 years for the redevelopment project to commence, Goyal finally decided to check the property papers given by Jain to verify the rightful claimants of the Malabar hill plot to discover the property was registered as Waqf and in dispute with the Waqf tribunal, Aurangabad.
The farmer approached the Mumbai Police EoW and filed a complaint last month and a preliminary enquiry (PE) was ordered for verification and recording statements of the Goyal and Jain.
The EoW, Banking Cell after completion of the PE registered FIR for cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery and several other sections of the Indian Penal Code at Tardeo Police last week.
