Delhi Court Calls For Status Report On FIR Against Raheja Developers As Home Buyers Cry Foul

A Delhi court has directed the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police to explain what action has been taken by it on the FIR registered against Raheja Developers, its CMD Navin Raheja and others after several home buyers cried foul over delay in completion of one of its residential projects.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pooja Talwar asked the investigating officer to file a status report on December 10.

The CMM was hearing a complaint moved by several homebuyers who had moved court after the police took no action on their complaint and accused Raheja Developers and its officials of cheating and misappropriating approximately Rs 450 crores invested by 400-500 home buyers.

Represented by Karanjawala & Company through Partner Samarjit Pattnaik along with senior associate Vikas Gogne and associates Satyam Chaturvedi and Aprajita Budhwar, the complainants said they were aggrieved by the inability of Raheja Developers to deliver on time the project named ‘Raheja Revanta’ at Sector, 78 Gurugram and that they have been led to investing in the project on the basis of false claims.

The homebuyers had first approached the Delhi Police with their complaint in January but when no action was taken, they moved the court in July.

The police registered the FIR in October.

On November 1, the court was informed that an FIR has been lodged against Raheja Developers, Navin Raheja and five others for cheating, misappropriation, criminal breach of trust and conspiracy.

In their complaint, the home buyers accused Raheja of inducing them into divesting their hard-earned money.

It was in the year 2011 that Raheja Developers had announced the launch of their project ‘Raheja Revanta’ by announcing that it would be a state-of-the-art project being made in joint venture with Arabtech Construction of Dubai which has executed the tallest building in the world i.e., Burj Khalifa.

“However, it has come to the knowledge of the complainants that the said joint venture has ceased to operate. On the basis of aforesaid inducement, the complainants had agreed to invest money in this project over the projects offered by other reputed builders. Subsequently, however, the project employed local contractors with poorest skills to execute the project, a fact which was deliberately withheld from the complainants as the builder was apprehensive that upon knowledge of this information, the complainants might withdraw their investment and seek a refund,” said the complainants.

The complaint also said that Raheja Developers has a team of marketing experts who induce customers to invest in their projects by resorting to deceit and fraudulent representations.

Six years after the booking of the first unit, the project is nowhere near completion and the project plan has been changed without the consent of the investors.

The complainant further alleged that the developer might be also defrauding banks by making false claims of having reached various building milestones.