Mumbai: A proprietor of a real estate firm has been booked for allegedly cheating and luring a businessman into investing money in a housing project redevelopment by promising profits and later duping him to the tune of ₹15.67 crore.
According to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police, the accused, Shriniwas Bansa, proprietor of Marwin Construction Company allegedly accepted money from the businessman from Andheri West as an investment for the project, and later violated terms and conditions mentioned in the MoU, according to the complainant, Zakir Chunawala, 44, who owns a construction company NAC Constructions Private Limited.
Chunawala alleged that Bansa sold off the flats without informing him, thus causing his company a wrongful loss to the tune of ₹15.67 crore.
In 2010, from a property dealer, Chunawala learnt that Harshwardhan Cooperative Housing Society in Goregaon West was being redeveloped by Shriniwas Bansa’s Marwin Construction Company.
According to the police complaint, in 2010 Bansa approached Chunawala seeking financial help to redevelop the said housing project offering lucrative returns. After verifying the documents pertaining to the project Chunawala decided to get involved in the project and a Joint Venture Agreement was executed between them incorporating terms and conditions. As per their deal Chunawala later invested ₹7 crore in the project till August 2014.
However, later Chunawala discovered that violating the terms of the agreement, Bansa had allegedly sold a few flats with the help of a broker.
This led to a dispute between the two companies. Chunawala then decided to withdraw money from the project and an MoU was executed laying down the mode of repayment to Chunawala’s NAC Construction. However, Bansa allegedly failed to adhere to the terms and conditions of the MoU and their cheques for repayment to Chunawala also came to be dishonoured due to insufficient funds, a police complaint said.
Later, Chunawala learnt that keeping his company in the dark, Bansa had cancelled the development agreement with the society and without Chunawala’s consent tied up with another real estate company and signed a development agreement. This was also a breach of MoU signed between Bansa and Chunawala, says the complaint.
Chunawala then realised that he was allegedly cheated by Bansa who lured him into investing money in the housing project by promising profits and later defaulted in repayment.
On Chunawala’s complaint, the EOW has registered a case under sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, banker, or merchant or agent), 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code against Bansa and others.
The complainant claimed in the FIR that the accused caused wrongful loss to his company to the tune of ₹15.67 crore. A preliminary enquiry has already been done and now the investigators are in process of scrutinising the deal agreement and MoU documents and further investigation is on, the EOW source added.