‘12 years have passed, I still find myself without a home’: Gurgaon homebuyers take fight against builders to streets

Khanna’s predicament is akin to over 1,600 homebuyers who had booked their flats in Gurgaon’s Greenopolis in 2012 but are yet to receive possession after waiting for almost 13 years. What makes their situation even more precarious is the fact that one developer, who was in a joint development agreement, has declared insolvency.

“I dedicated my hard-earned savings to this project. Twelve years have passed, and I still find myself without a home. With mounting medical expenses, it has become increasingly challenging for me to manage the financial burden… the prospect of obtaining the flat seems increasingly bleak,” said 81-year-old Harvinder Singh Anand.

At the protest site, residents dressed in white T-shirts shouted slogans of ‘Nyay do, Nyay do’. Some carried placards, one of which read: ‘Greenopolis housing scam – 13 years of waiting and still no homes’.

They have a list of demands: Immediate possession of their homes, which are ready, and a court-backed completion timeline for the rest of the project; strict action against builders Orris Infrastructure Pvt Limited and Three C for delays; and compensation for the emotional and financial distress caused to them.

In 2012, the homebuyers had booked houses in Greenopolis. Developers Orris (who owned the land) and Three C got into a joint development agreement wherein 65 per cent of the over 1,860 flats were to be allotted by Three C and the remaining 35 per cent were to be allotted by Orris.

Under the Construction Linked Plan, homebuyers paid around Rs 1,245 crore – which was around 85 per cent of their total property price — to the developers after the basic structure of the towers was complete. Over Rs 860 crore was given by Three C buyers, and around Rs 400 crore by Orris homebuyers.

The basic structure of all the towers was complete by 2016, and seven of the 28 towers in Greenopolis were almost finished. However, shortly after this, construction stalled.

The developers started pinning the blame on each other. While Orris claimed Three C had cheated the homebuyers and Orris by not completing the project, the latter pointed fingers at the buyers for the delay, claiming they had defaulted in making timely payments to the tune of Rs 118 crore.

Stuck in the middle were the 1,600-plus buyers — over 1,200 Three C allottees and over 450 Orris allottees — who have been shuttling between the Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority (HRERA), the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court to fight for their rights.
After Three C declared bankruptcy in 2020, Orris said it would complete the Greenopolis project and hand over the flats to all the homebuyers.

Then, on November 25 last year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at 14 locations in Delhi-NCR at the premises linked to the promoters and directors of Orris and Three C in relation to a Rs 500-crore real estate “fraud”.

The central probe agency initiated its investigation based on two FIRs registered by the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police. The EOW FIRs were based on complaints from homebuyers alleging a fraud of hundreds of crores. The buyers had alleged Orris and Three C colluded to hatch a criminal conspiracy and siphoned off their money.

“During the search, several incriminating documents related to diversion, layering of funds, property documents, and other asset details of the aforesaid entities such as sale deeds, registration deeds, etc, various digital devices like laptops, hard drives etc., were recovered and seized. Several documents were also recovered from secret lockers kept in the office premises of Orris Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd,” the ED said in a statement on December 3, 2024.

At present, the bank accounts and lockers belonging to the promoters of the companies have been frozen, and four luxury cars — Mercedes, Porsche, and BMW — have been seized from the residence of one of the directors/ promoters of the Orris Group.

Orris Managing Director Amit Gupta had earlier told The Indian Express that Orris had provided the houses to their respective homebuyers and that Three C was to blame for the buyers’ woes. When contacted, Three C remained unavailable for comment.