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VadodaraNilesh Patel had booked a flat in a posh residential apartment in the city a few years ago and paid a hefty booking amount. But the work on the project never started as the project did not get the necessary permissions from the local authorities. And, Nilesh didn’t even get the full refund after which he filed a police complaint against builder Apoorva Patel last year.
Like Nilesh, hundreds of citizens have invested their hard-earned money to buy their dream home but it has turned into a nightmare. They were cheated by the builders and never given possession of the flat or duplex booked by them. Last year, the city police registered 64 FIRs of cheating against four reputed builders who launched residential and commercial schemes in the city.
“After proper investigation FIR has been registered against builders and now investigation is going on. But number of people cheated by some other builders is very high. We have received huge number of applications from citizens who paid booking amount The builders did not get possession of the property. “The victims number in hundreds,” said Vadodara city police commissioner Shamsher Singh.
Formation of Special Economic Offenses Cell for settlement of disputes
In fact, there was such a flood of complaints of cheating against builders that Singh constituted a special economic offenses cell six months ago to focus only on FIRs against such builders. Singh said, “A special cell headed by a police inspector is probing the complaints and collecting all the necessary evidence. The idea is to expedite the investigation and take the case to the trial stage at the earliest “
As per the data provided by the police, 64 FIRs have been registered against the four prominent builders including Apoorva Patel, Jayesh Patel, Darpan Shah and Sanjay Parmar as well as their family members.
Shah was arrested last year in connection with one such FIR against him. Police said that last year several applications have been filed against many small builders.
The immediate fallout of the FIR against the builders is that many of them have started refunding the booking amount to the buyers. A senior police officer said, “Many people who lodged complaints with the police said that they were being offered refunds by builders who failed to fulfill their commitments.”
The Vadodara CP said that the police is running a campaign to make people aware of such frauds and before booking any flat or shop verify the builder’s credentials as well as the property details and required permissions. Has been
