Mumbai: D-man's Malad housing society books to be audited

Acting on allegations of misappropriation of funds the district deputy registrar of cooperative housing societies has called for an audit report of Auris Serenity society a plush highrise at Malad West where the chairman Sonu Jalan allegedly is a bookie and has links with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim The members had last month sought police protection saying Jalan had threatened them Jalan has rubbished the charges This newspaper on August 30 and September 5 had highlighted the plight of the residents of the 58storey building which is Maladrsquos tallest towerAlso read Mumbai Malad highrise residents fear for lives demand action against DmanThe 58storey Auris Serenity is the tallest tower in MaladIn a letter to the district special auditor class 1 cooperative societies Mumbai Kailash P Jebale district deputy registrar cooperative societies iv Mumbai said ldquoIn accordance with the complaint letter dated August 8 from residents of Auris Serenity Tower 1 Cooperative Housing Society to the office of Deputy Registrar Cooperative Societies Eastern and Western Suburbs SRA it is requested to conduct a government audit from the time the society was registered in the year 2021 to March 2022rdquoJebale added ldquoName of the auditor who will be conducting the said audit of Auris Serenity Tower 1 Cooperative Housing Society for the period of 2021 to March 2022 should be informed to this officerdquo The office of the district special auditor class1 coop society did not respond to middayrsquos calls and messagesThe residents alleged that the committee of Maladrsquos Auris Serenity collects transfer charges between R2LR4L instead of R25000 mandated by the law PicsAnurag AhireIn their complaint residents of Auris Serenity said the interim committee headed by Jalan has been illegally collecting transfer charges ranging from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 4 lakh instead of Rs 25000 as mandated by the law The members also alleged that the provisional managing committee also spent up to Rs 40 lakh on items for which no bids or tenders were floated The managing committee allegedly passed a resolution to construct a society office for Rs 3500000 without any approval and clearance from the BMC SRA or the even fire department and finished the construction in less than 20 daysChairman rubbishes chargesJalan chairman of the provisional committee called the allegations baseless ldquoWhat proof do these handful of people have about my connection with Dawood Ibrahim Do they have any evidence of me threatening them using Dawood Ibrahimrsquos name The money towards maintenance etc that society is collecting goes directly to the societyrsquos account and not to our personal accounts nor to Dawood Ibrahims If they have proof they should come ahead and make it public I on the other hand have evidence of one of these accusing membersrsquo lawyers sending a voice note of our secretary threatening him which I have put on record before all the society members These are just four to five people whereas I have 200 residents who are supporting the committee We have also submitted complaints to the police regarding these membersrdquo Jalan saidHe added ldquoAbout the audit we have already got an audit done by a government auditor the report will be completed soon and we are planning to submit it to the district deputy registrar of the cooperative housing societyrsquos office after Ganesh Chaturthi Apart from this we havenrsquot received any letter from the deputy registrar of the cooperative housing societyrsquos office pointing out any irregularities I am sure they found none hence they have sent any notices or letters to us We have not threatened any residents in the society instead the ones accusing us are threatening us and have defamed us and we will soon take action against themrdquo