HDIL homebuyers: Filed FIR in 2018, but EOW didn't act

When asked about the homebuyers' plight, a senior EOW officer told mid-day, "The investigation is underway."

Hundreds of aggrieved homebuyers of the HDIL have alleged that the EOW did not act on their complaint filed in 2018 against the real estate firm, now embroiled in the PMC Bank scam, over the delay in delivering the properties. A delegation of 32 homebuyers, who have been running from pillar to post to get possession of their flats in Mulund, Palghar and other places for the past ten years, met the chief of Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Tuesday to raise their grievances. They were given assurances that EOW will soon act in the matter.

A group of 169 homebuyers from HDIL Whispering Towers, Mulund, had in August 2018 filed an FIR at Mulund police station, which then transferred the case to EOW, but no action has been taken as yet. Dr Haresh Manglani, 51, told mid-day, "Nine years ago, I paid R85 lakh for a 3BHK flat in Mulund. The firm promised to hand over the flat to me in December 2014 which was then delayed to December 2016, but I haven't got possession of the property yet. This is a bigger scam than the PMC fraud; around 6,500 buyers' money in different HDIL projects is stuck."

Sanat Ved, who bought one flat each in Mulund and Palghar and paid a total of R77 lakh, said getting possession of his homes seems like a distant dream with the arrest of HDIL promoters. Forty-five-year-old Chandrkant Mishra sold his two flats to buy his dream home worth R75 lakh in Mulund ten years back, but has been forced to live on rent since then. "We have been paying EMIs but don't know when we will get the possession," he said. Dr Rachna Agarwal who spent R75 lakh for a flat, said, "Our money is trapped with criminals and we have been begging for our own hard earned money," said Agarwal. When asked about the homebuyers' plight, a senior EOW officer told mid-day, "The investigation is underway."

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