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Home Buyers Cheated: Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati said that preliminary investigation has been completed in the projects of other cities except Delhi-NCR and becomes a cognizable offense.
Home buyers cheated: The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to register six new regular cases related to real estate projects in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mohali and Prayagraj. These cases are related to alliances between developers and banks in cases of cheating home buyers. A bench of Justice Suryakant, Justice Ujjal Bhuiyan and Justice N. Kotishwar Singh allowed the CBI to take action as per the law. Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati said that preliminary investigation has been completed in the projects of other cities except Delhi-NCR and becomes a cognizable offense. The CBI will now start actions like search and seizure by registering regular cases in these six cities. The court directed Bhati to share some parts related to the investigation with Justice Advocate Rajiv Jain in a sealed envelope. It is noteworthy that earlier on July 22, the Supreme Court had allowed the CBI to register an FIR for 22 similar cases in Delhi-NCR and gave six weeks time to complete the investigation of other cities.
Real estate developers and banks investigated
This order of the court will strengthen the action of the Central Agency on real estate scams. 22 cases were related to builders working in NCR and development authorities of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Under the subvention scheme, the banks used to distribute the sanctioned amount directly to the accounts of the builders, who had to pay the EMI on the sanctioned loan amount, until the flat homes are handed over to the buyers. Banks demanded EMI from home buyers in accordance with the tripartite agreement after the builders missed the EMI. The apex court is hearing petitions filed by more than 1,200 home buyers, who booked flats under subvention schemes in various housing projects in NCR, especially Noida, Greater Noida and Gurugram. On March 29, the apex court allowed the CBI to register five initial investigations in the cases of builders and projects in Noida, Greater Noida, Gurugram, Yamuna Expressway and Ghaziabad.
Displeasure over the connivance of officers, banks and builders
The Supreme Court had allowed a preliminary inquiry against Supertech Limited, against which 799 home buyers had moved the apex court through 84 appeals related to projects in eight different cities. On July 22, the apex court visited the report submitted by the CBI in a sealed envelope, which suggested that 22 regular cases are required to be registered for further investigation after preliminary investigation of cases to detect cognizable offense by builders and financial institutions. On 29 April, the apex court directed the CBI to register seven preliminary investigations against the builders in the NCR including Supertech Limited. Expressing displeasure over the connivance of officials, banks and builders of the development authorities to cheat home buyers, the apex court said that it had found a prima facie connivance between the famous banks and builders in Noida, Gurugram, Yamuna Expressway, Greater Noida, Mohali, Mumbai, Kolkata and Prayagraj.
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