JOIN US3 'developers' shut shop, leave scores of investors in the lurch
The fate of thousands of families hangs in balance as real estate firms TGS Constructions, Dreamz Properties and Gruh Kalyan, have shut down all their offices across the city.
The three firms were managed by the same group of people comprising Sachin Naik, Mandeep Kaur, Disha Choudhary, Shataparni Majumdar, Siddharth and others. These companies placed advertisements in prominent dailies and local television channels, offering houses at low prices in prime locations.
The property owners, who have been running from pillar to post to get their money back, were in for a shock when they found that all the offices of the three companies were shut.
Jayanthi Pawar, who had invested in Gruh Kalyan said, “The only office open was at HSR Layout, which too is closed. We do not know where these people have vanished. We have filed many complaints at the HSR Layout police station but to no avail.”
Jayanthi had paid Rs 1.5 lakh for the GK Coronation project while another investor from Halasuru M M Seethamma paid Rs 6 lakh for GK Gladiolus project. Like thousands of investors, the fraudsters gave these two women cheques when the project did not take off, which were dishonoured.
Jayanthi said she lodged a complaint with the HSR Layout police but no case of cheque bounce was registered against them.
Another name surfaces
While Naik and a few others were arrested and released on bail, Majumdar is still at large and is learnt to be hiding in West Bengal. The city police have not been able to trace her.
G Vidya from Fraser Town said Majumdar had signed all the memoranda of understanding for the Gruh Kalyan.
The duped investors said the swindlers are well-connected. Sachin Naik and Siddharth, one of the directors of the firms, are seen in pictures with political bigwigs in the state. These pictures make the investors believe that these political bosses will ensure that no action is taken against them.
Jayanthi said, “When we approached some police officers to get our money back, they said they cannot act against Sachin Naik and others because there is ‘tremendous pressure’ on them from higher-ups.”
When contacted, a police officer in HSR Layout said there is no pressure on them but the role of police is not to retrieve people’s money.
“We can arrest the swindlers, which we did. Later, all of them came out on bail. People should have checked the antecedents of the developers and builders before investing their money. It is their fault,” said the officer.
The reply irked Seethamma who sought to know what the administration was doing when the fraudsters were flashing advertisements everywhere.