Mumbai: In Mumbai, several people have fallen victim to unscrupulous developers, losing a huge amount of money on their dream homes and enduring years of struggle for justice. In a real estate scam, victims are fighting back independently.
Parag Thakkar and his wife, Shilpa Thakkar, developers allegedly involved in cheating over a hundred people in a scam worth more than Rs 100 crore, were granted bail after their arrest. However, defrauded flat buyers pursued justice in Esplanade Court and achieved partial success.
Three years after the initial FIR, victims from the ‘Shri Mahalaxmi Residency’ and Really Affordable Homes (RAH) projects presented their case before Judge RB Thakur in the 47th court. Two victims argued their case for nearly two months after the judge permitted them to represent themselves.
The victims sought to cancel the accused’s bail, and after a prolonged debate, the judge cancelled the bail on November 30, 2024. The Thakkar couple was rearrested, and their interrogation resumed.
According to the FIR, the Thakkar couple defrauded 142 people of Rs18 crore, but the victims claim the scam exceeds Rs100 crore, with hundreds allegedly cheated. One victim, Ajaz Patel, 50, a Worli resident and Mumbai police employee, filed a complaint against the Thakkar couple in February 2021.
Patel had been deceived into purchasing a flat in the Neral project, which was promoted as an ideal holiday home with amenities such as a swimming pool, badminton court, and parks. Despite paying for the flat, Patel never received possession by 2019 and filed an FIR, leading to the case being transferred to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW). The Thakkars were arrested in September 2021 and granted bail the following month.
Determined to fight back, the victims formed a WhatsApp group to organise their efforts. Unable to afford expensive lawyers, they requested the court’s permission to represent themselves, which was granted. After a lengthy legal battle, the court ruled in their favor and cancelled the accused’s bail.
Ajaz Patel stated, “The Thakkar couple defrauded several other people. They took money from thousands and cheated them out of more than Rs100 crore.”
He added, “We could not afford a lawyer, so five of us decided to fight the case on our own. Later, other victims joined us, and we formed a group of over 100 victims.”
The scam involved two projects in Neral: Shri Mahalaxmi Residency, with 900 buyers in 67 buildings, and Really Affordable Homes (RAH), with 500 buyers in 9 buildings. In total, 1,400 flats were sold for Rs 170 crore. Initially, 142 buyers reported fraud amounting to Rs 18 crore, which led to the EOW taking over the investigation. Within a year, the Thakkars were implicated in five additional cases in Mumbra, Narpoli, Delhi, and Haryana, revealing further frauds totaling Rs 40-50 crore.
