Chargesheet against builder Raheja, two sons in cheating case

City police has chargesheeted billionnaire builder Chandru Raheja and his two sons, Ravi and Neel, in a cheating case filed by industrialist Nusli Wadia, who claimed to have suffered losses worth crores of rupees because of the trio, police said today.

A chargesheet in this case was filed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on October 22, Joint Police Commissioner (Crime) Himanshu Roy said.

According to police, Wadia, in his complaint in 2008, had alleged that he had suffered monetary losses in the redevelopment of a land in suburban Malad (W).

In 1995, Wadia, who is the sole administrator of the estate of the late E F Dinshaw, has entered into an agreement with Rahejas through their company called Ivory Properties & Hotels Pvt Ltd for development of the lands in Malad.

As per the agreement, the Rahejas had taken possession of 1,70,656 square feet of land for development. The accused were required to construct Ivory Towers and sell or transfer the developed property to "third parties" and hand over 12 per cent of the sale proceeds to Wadia, police said.

The agreement has also stated if the Rahejas did not develop the property, then Wadia should be paid Rs 3.75 crore in the form of "minimum guarantee assurance" in 1997.

Rahejas had been given permission by the administrator to construct an eight-floor commercial building called 'Ivory Towers' but it was never built.

The Rahejas have subsequently transfered about Rs 3.89 crore in Wadia's bank account, saying that Ivory Towers was ready. It was sold to a third party and the amount transfered was 12 per cent of the sale amount as agreed, police said.
"Rahejas have also fraudulently prepared nine release deeds and signed as owners," an officer said.

On the same area, Rahejas then went on to construct a mall currently known as 'Hypercity' in 2006 and also transferred the possession of the mall to Hypercity Retail India Pvt Ltd, without the knowledge of the administrator by falsely claiming to be the "owner" of the said land, police alleged.

The reason for suppression of facts relating to construction of Hypercity was only to deprive the administrator of its land. By doing this, Rahejas caused losses to the tune of crores of rupees to Wadia in between 1997 and 2006, police alleged.
The Malad land is now a major commercial hub, comprising Mindspace, InOrbit mall and HyperCity store.

In 2008, Wadia filed a civil suit in the Bombay High Court and lodged a complaint with the EOW.