Observing that builders dominate consumers and their projects are seldom delivered on time, a Delhi court has asked police to register a case against a real estate company.
Special CBI Judge Anju Bajaj Chandna allowed a revision petition filed by Ghaziabad resident Mithun Aggarwal and directed the station house officer of Connaught Place police station to lodge a case on the basis of the complaint and conduct a probe.
Aggarwal had challenged a magisterial court's November 2014 order dismissing his plea for a case against the real estate company BPTP Limited on charge of cheating and criminal breach of trust under the Indian Penal Code.
In his order, the CBI court said: "It is a matter of common knowledge that builders are dominating the consumers. The projects floated by the builders are seldom delivered on time, despite the fact that interest at higher rate is charged from consumers for delay while minimal interest is payable by the builder for his own delay."
In his plea before the magisterial court, Aggarwal said that he applied for a residential plot measuring 350 square metres in Parklands, Faridabad, following the company's advertisement, and paid Rs.22.38 lakh as plot price.
In May 2008, he said, he was intimated about allotment of an alternate plot measuring 302 square metres without his consent. He said he asked the company to give him an option to select a plot measuring 350 square metres.
Aggarwal filed a complaint before the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission where a settlement was arrived at, according to which a plot measuring 335 square yards was agreed to be given on further payment of Rs.22.23 lakh.
He paid Rs.22.23 lakh but the company failed to perform its part of the obligation, Aggarwal said, adding that when he visited the project site in December 2013, he found there was no plot demarcation or development work.
