2 directors of Nirmal Lifestyle held for ‘duping’ buyers of Mulund flats

A case was registered against the developer in 2022 and a probe revealed that even construction had not started for the flats that were promised to be delivered in 2017.

Known for its posh residential towers in Mulund region, Nirmal Lifestyle is facing atleast three FIRs that are currently being investigated by the EOW.

According to the EOW officials, in 2011, the firm proposed to construct projects Olympia, Omega, Panorama and Nirmal One Spirit in Mulund and allegedly accepted bookings from buyers with a promise to deliver the flats in 2017. However, the deadline was never met, the complaint said.

The buyers then came together and formed Nirmal Lifestyle Home Buyers Redressal Association. President of the association Sunil Kumar Arora, the complainant, along with 33 other buyers approached police and an FIR was filed at the Mulund police station in 2022 against Dharmesh Jain, Rajiv Jain and Puja Jain.

Dharmesh and Rajiv are relatives, while Puja is Rajiv’s wife. She has been shown as wanted accused and has not been arrested yet.

Later, the Housing Fraud-2 unit of EOW took over the investigation. The amount taken from 34 buyers is around Rs 11 crore, the EOW said.

“We have learnt that the developer had secured relevant permissions from the departments concerned, including the BMC, but they never started the construction of these projects. This prima-facie establishes the fact that the developer had fraudulent intention,” an EOW officer said.

The EOW has identified four bank accounts of the developers and further investigation is on. The EOW hopes that more buyers who were defrauded would come forward in the coming days.

“Dharmesh and Rajiv have been arrested under sections 406, 420, 409, 120B of the Indian Penal Code and sections 3, 4 5, 8 and 13 of Maharashtra Ownership of Flats Act. They have been remanded to police custody till May 3,” said inspector Sanjay Kate of Housing Fraud-2 unit.

Another case against Nirmal Lifestyle was registered in December 2021 by the EOW for allegedly delaying the possession of flats to 54 buyers. The victims — buyers of Nirmal projects Zircon, Amethyst and Torquies, claimed that the developer took money in 2010-11 for projects in Mulund (west), but the flats have not been delivered yet.

EOW sources said that after the custody of the two developers is over in the current case, they will be arrested in the second case.