Mumbai: ‘They took my life savings, refuse to return it now’

Nazia Khan with her 11-year-old son. Pics/Hanif Patel

A 34-year-old woman, who is a wedding planner and resident of Virar, registered an FIR against the Rudransh Apartment's developers on Thursday. She has accused them of cheating her of Rs 6.40 lakh. The police said the accused had taken the money from the complainant, Nazia Khan, promising to arrange for a loan on the flat, after her bank had rejected her application.

Khan lives with her 11-year-old and used her life savings to buy flat number 101 in Rudransh Apartment at Kopri village in Virar East in 2021. Khan told mid-day, "In 2021, I had booked a flat in Rudransh Apartment after paying Rs 2 lakh. I told the developer to give me some time to arrange for the money and the builder said he would give me a loan after I had paid Rs 6.40 lakh in cash. The value of the flat was Rs 21 lakh."

Rudransh Apartment

"In 2022, I managed to pay Rs 2 lakh and till 2023, I had paid the entire Rs 6.40 lakh. I paid the money in cash to Sai Construction Developer and the developers were Dilip Benbanshi, Dipak Benbanshi and Pramod Zore. The meeting and payment happened in the Rudransh Apartment office itself. In 2022, I took the papers of Rudransh Apartment, which had been provided to me by the developer, to GIC Bank in Vasai to apply for a loan. The bank rejected my application saying the building was not on their loan approved list. I informed the developer Benbanshi and he told me that he would arrange for a loan from other banks and that these banks charged more than Rs 70,000 as processing charges. I paid this amount, too, by neither got the flat not was my loan sanctioned," Khan said.

"I was out of Mumbai for six months for a wedding event in Rajasthan and when I returned in July, I asked them for the money I had paid to them. They refused to return it. So, I approached the police station and gave a written complaint. On Thursday, the Virar police registered the case against the accused for cheating," Khan said.

Gang forged lawyer's letterhead

During investigations, the Virar police also found that the accused used the forged letterheads of two advocates for search reports, commencement certificate and agreements copies. One of the advocates, Nandan D Bhagat, told mid-day, "I received a call from the Virar police after they found my letterhead that had a search report, commencement certificate and agreements copies in the 55 buildings scam. These accused also forged my letterhead and stamps and made documents. Police recorded my statement in this case. They found papers from 2015 that had been forged by these accused using my name and stamps."

2021
Year Nazia Khan had booked the flat