Gujarat: Another cheating complaint against ‘gang of real estate developers’

Notably, earlier on March 7, Ashwin Chovatiya, a builder based in Surat, had lodged a complaint of extortion, threat, and money laundering against Dhirubhai Hirpara, Paresh Vadodariya, Rajni Kabariya, Guddu Poddar, Jayenti Babariya (Iklera) and Jignesh Sakhiya, all residents of Surat. An SIT was formed by Surat police commissioner Ajay Kumar Tomar to probe the case. The SIT led by Rupal Solanki, the deputy commissioner of police of the crime branch in Surat, carried out raids at the residence of Guddu Poddar, and offices of Jayenti Babariya (Iklera), and Jignesh Shakiya in Surat. The police team returned empty-handed as all of them had gone underground.

In his complaint, Prakash Limbasiya alleged that he runs real estate firms by the name of Pushkar infra, Pragati developers, and Pan developers, with his partners and had constructed Emporious Galaxy at Utran (constructed in 2019), Utsav Residency at Dindoli (constructed in 2015) and Angan Residency at Dindoli Kharwasa (constructed in 2019) and had put them on sale.

Limbasiya had alleged that the accused had purchased 51 flats and seven shops worth Rs 42.12 crore in the three projects and paid Rs 9.50 crore and defaulted on payments to the tune of Rs 32.61 crore. The accused sold all the flats and shops and did not pay him, Limbasiya further said.

In the complaint, Limbasiya alleged that he had done a sale deal of 31 flats worth Rs 31.37 crore in Emporious Galaxy with Dhirubhai Hirpara and his son Shreyas on August 7, 2020, with terms and conditions that the total payment should be done in 12 months. A diary was made by Limbasiya in which the sale deed and details of flats and payment received and pending payment were mentioned.

Later in October 2020, through a land broker Rajnibhai Kabaria, Limbasiya sold 20 flats and seven shops worth Rs 10.75 crore in Utsav residency and Angan residency to Guddu Poddar and others and noted the sale deed in a diary containing details of flats and shops and handed it to Poddar.

Limbasiya further alleged that Hirpara paid Rs 8.90 crore for 31 flats through installments at different intervals from August 7, 2020, to January 1, 2021. Hirpara allegedly failed to pay the pending amount.

While paying for Utsav and Angan residencies, Poddar and others had given payment of Rs 60 lakh to Limbasiya till January 22, 2021, for 20 flats and seven shops and failed to give the remaining amount.

Limbasiya had further mentioned that all the accused had done sale deeds of all the flats and shops and sold them to different persons and shared the money among themselves without paying pending dues to him.

Surat city crime branch police inspector LD Vaghadiya said, “On the basis of the cheating complaint, we have arrested Madhusudan Darak and Gaurav Shaluja and are questioning them, to find out more details. Our teams are on the hunt for the remaining accused.”

Vaghadiya further said, “In the complaint of Ashwin Chovatiya, we have started investigations and today we have carried out raids at the house of Guddu Poddar, and offices of Jignesh Sakhiya and Jayenti Babariya (Iklera), but they had gone underground. Nothing had been seized in these raids. We are also hunting for the remaining accused. We have made teams and they have been sent to different directions to catch the accused.”