One of the country’s biggest real estate groups, Unitech, which initiated its residential project in Mohali in 2007, have shattered the dreams of owning a residential flat of hundreds of people. The buyers, who had been promised by the company to take possession of their accommodation at the Unitech group towers in three years, have been left in the lurch as neither have they been given possession of their apartments nor have they been refunded their money. There are around 1500 flats in the Unitech project at sectors 97, 106 and 107 in Mohali. According to the records of the State Dispute Redressal Commission in Chandigarh, the bosses of Unitech group, including managing directors Ajay Chandra and Sanjay Chandra and Chairman Ramesh Chandra are facing allegations of defaulting mostly for their residential properties located in Mohali. The three have been sentenced to jail while non-bailable warrants in at least 13 execution petitions have been filed against them by the state commission so far. And, despite being sentenced to jail term six times in a year so far by the State Dispute Redressal Commission, the bosses of Unitech group have failed to appear before the commission or obey commission orders. The consumer commission has also issued non-bailable warrants against them as some of the applications against them but they remained at large till date. According to a state commission official, apart from the cases in which they have been given jail term, there are around 20 complaints against their real estate firm while about 25 applications are alone of execution petitions, which are either being heard or have been decided against them by the commission this year. These petitions are the ones where the commission’s order of giving compensation to customers was not obeyed by the firm and action against them had been sought by the complainants. The case hearings are still pending against the Unitech bosses which is now scheduled for August 28 and the Chandigarh Police has been directed by the commission to get the Unitech bosses on production warrant. Unitech Counsel Meanwhile, talking to Chandigarh Newsline, the counsel for Unitech at State Commission, Advocate Vertika H Singh, said, “The MDs of Unitech have been arrested by Delhi Police in some other case due to which developing funds and to refund the same to the complainants at the State Commission have become difficult for the owners. The Unitech has settled around 160 complaints and have refunded the money to several respective complainants but if the builders remain imprisoned, refunding money to the buyers or handing them property possession becomes difficult.” Association involving victims An association by the name of Unitech Buyers Welfare Association involves around 100-150 victims of Unitech group. Advocate Sukhvinder Singh, president of the association, said, “Our requirement is to get either the possession of the flats for which we have paid or our hard-earned money should be refunded. Till date, several buyers have not received either of the things even though we have moved State Commission.”
