In a major relief, the state consumer dispute redressal commission Maharashtra has granted a refund of the invested amount along with 9 per cent interest per annum to 36 homebuyers in the Ved Shlok project in Kanjurmarg. In addition, Rs 2 lakh has been awarded for the mental agony caused and Rs 25,000 as the cost of complaint. The said project has been abandoned by the developer, following which the homebuyers had approached the consumer commission for relief.
The order of the state consumer commission was passed by Dr S K Kakade (president) and A Z Khwaja (judicial member) on December 7. The aggrieved homebuyers had previously approached MahaRERA, wherein they were asked to file an affidavit. The developer had assured that he would refund the accepted amount but did not comply. Moreover, as the project was not registered with MahaRERA, the regulatory could not help them. Accordingly, they approached the state consumer commission for justice, said Anil Kumar, one of the homebuyers.
Advocate Manindra Pandey who represented these homebuyers said that all 36 homebuyers will be compensated a total of Rs 8.5 crore. Since the project had been abandoned and the developer, Satish Ghoghari, was currently in jail, the plea in the consumer forum was only to get the refund, Pandey said.
Another homebuyer, Kumar, had booked a one bedroom-kitchen flat for Rs 52 lakh in 2017 in the project, of which he had already paid Rs 35 lakh to the developer. As no work was started on the site, the aggrieved homebuyer filed a complaint. Kumar alleged, “The proposed project was just 100 metres away from the police station. The developer had put a gate and a compound was set up. We were all attracted due to the close proximity to the railway station and the way the project was advertised. However, the builder cheated me and several other homebuyers similarly,” the builder had not obtained any permission, Kumar claimed.
Another homebuyer, Shrikant Sapkal, who had also bought a 1-BHK for Rs 59 lakh, of which he had already paid Rs 16 lakh, said, “I wanted to buy a house in Mumbai and so I had invested in this project, considering that the offer price of the flat I booked was affordable. The builder had done a lot of advertising, with banners everywhere. That is how I got to know about this project.”
Another homebuyer, Nitin Tomar, was offered a flat for Rs 70 lakh and he had paid Rs 6.5 lakh to the builder. Tomar said, “Since I reached out to the MahaRERA I was given a cheque by the builder. However, I could only get back Rs 1 lakh and the cheque for the remaining amount bounced.”
The aggrieved homebuyers agreed that the developer who had allegedly cheated them should return their money and abide by the orders passed by the state consumer dispute redressal commission. They all emphasised that they were working class families and were drawn towards this project because the builder had offered them flats at affordable prices in a prime suburb like Kanjurmarg.
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