Mumbai-based builder arrested for cheating buyers

Construction firm director, Satish Nathalal Ghogari, who had collected Rs 10 crore from 64 flat buyers, but failed to deliver the flats, was arrested on Monday. He was booked for cheating, forgery, criminal breach of trust and under the Maharashtra Flat Owners Act (MOFA). Complainant, Jaikumar Bhaskar, a former banker, had paid Rs 8 lakh advance for a one-BHK costing Rs 54 lakh in 2017 in the project 'Ved Shlok' undertaken by Ved Infratech in Kanjurmarg (east). He was promised possession by June 2020. The developer's office later said construction had started and asked Bhaskar for another Rs 6.82 lakh. When the complainant went to the site, he did not find any progress nor did he get a satisfactory answer from the builder. When Bhaskar went to the builder's office in 2018, he realised several others had been similarly duped. They lodged a complaint this month.