‘Money trail needs to be unearthed’: HC rejects anticipatory bail plea of developer booked for cheating flat buyers

The prosecution stated that complainant Vishwanath Pujari and his wife booked a 540 square feet flat worth Rs 60 lakh in the redevelopment project Hitech Menaba Tower in Borivali (East) undertaken by Siddik M Hafiz firm and sale agreement was executed in 2017. The couple had paid a total of Rs 41.75 lakh in installments.

Subsequently, on their visit to the project site, the couple found that the project was taken over by a third party called Samarth T-Square Developer, prompting them to approach police. An FIR under Section 420 (cheating) of Indian Penal Code was registered at Kasturba Marg Police station in July 2022.

Senior advocate Sanjog Parab for Hafizi argued that while the FIR was registered for a period of offence between September 2013 to July 2022, it was not the case where no construction was done or construction was abandoned. He said the project was undertaken by another developer as the property owner terminated the development agreement in favour of Hafizi midway. Parab added that Hafizi, one of the partners in the firm, had complied with notices or letters issued by the police after registration of FIR.

Opposing the plea, Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) R M Pethe for the police stated that Hafizi did not cooperate with the probe and he is habitual offender in seven FIRs registered at Goregaon, Kandivali and Oshiwara police stations for cheating various flatbuyers apart from the present case and recovery of amounts was underway.

Pethe also argued that the applicant had left various flat purchasers “high and dry”, and a probe to ascertain chain of monetary trail in offences was required.

Counsel Yuvraj Narvankar representing Pujari and advocate Vaibhav Khanolkar, who also appeared for other victims Amol Gawade, Ashish Angane and Rachana Parab, opposed the plea. They submitted that Hafizi had executed sale agreements even as the property owner had terminated the development agreement with Hafizi in August, 2015 and cheated them by accepting “large sums of hard-earned money”.

A single-judge bench of Justice M M Sathaye, after perusing submissions, observed that the applicant was in “complete disregard of termination of development agreement” and “continued accepting money from innocent flat purchasers”.

“The custodial interrogation of the applicant in finding out money trail of the flat purchasers’ money, spent at the hands of the applicant, is necessary to be unearthed…The court cannot lose sight of the fact that the complainant is also a senior citizen. The amounts paid by the complainant and other victims are running into crores of rupees. They have lost huge amounts and have not received possession of flats since the last many years,” the HC noted.