Theft to the tune of 50 lacks. It is unheard of in the Indian middle class family but that is exactly what I have suffered. I am Mahesh Narayanan, a software engineer by profession and resident of Delhi. The builder company Mahagun India Pvt. Ltd. operating in NCR has cheated me to the tune of 50 lacks. I booked a flat with Mahagun in their project Mahagun Mascot located in Crossing Republik, Ghaziabad in year 2007. I have been working since the year 2003 and had been saving up for a house. I live with my retired mother who is disabled and we have been living in a rented flat since she retired in 2005. We were looking for a flat at a lower floor due to my mother’s condition and this flat located in 2nd floor looked like a viable option. I took a home loan from HDFC to part finance the flat and the remaining money was paid from my and my mother’s life savings. My mother entire retirement benefits have been invested in this flat. The purpose of buying this flat was to get a shelter over our head and not for any speculative trading.
The sales brochure given to us by the builder’s sales representative showed a prospective view of the building housing our flat. Also there was small single storied shop/commercial building indicated in front of the building.The flat was to be handed over in March 2010 as per the allotment letter agreement but the project got delayed. We were paying rent for the house we are presently living in and I was also paying pack the home loan. Then in December 2010, on a site visit, I noticed that a monstrous building was being raised in front of my flat building. This building was 3 stories in height and was spread over a large portion of land within the confines of the group housing. On enquiry I found out that this monstrous construction was in-fact the shop/commercial building. I was shell shocked! What was shown as a tiny single storied shop was being constructed as a mega shopping complex consisting of 50 shops. This meant that my flat located on the 2nd floor would now be completely eclipsed by this commercial building. I went up to my under-construction flat and could see that neither would it get any sunlight nor would it have any view. I never thought such a reputed builder would misrepresent the size of this commercial building in the sales brochure and conceal the fact that my flat is going to be completely hidden by this monster of a building. This building was being constructed just 6 meter away from the high rise tower (20 storeys tall) housing my flat. Something was terribly wrong! I contacted the builder but he refused to listen. I had no other choice but to approach the District Consumer Forum. I filed the complaint in December 2010 and got a restraining order from the forum stopping any further construction on the commercial building. To this the builder threatened that he will not handover my flat.
By March 2011 I had gone through all the building bye-laws and was sure that the commercial building was illegal in its entirety. The sanction for the illegal commercial building was given by Ghaziabad Development Authority in violation of the building bye-laws and fire safety bye-laws for the sake of bribes. The land over which the commercial building was being constructed was to be left vacant as the bye-laws. The 15 meter wide setback-open space as it is called is a necessity for fire-fighting or rescue operation on the high rise building. Due to the presence of the illegal commercial building a.k.a the shopping complex as many as 1200 residents of the flats housed in the adjacent 4 high rise towers was seriously endangered. The situtation is captured in the diagrams attached to this post. If there is a fire in either of these towers namely Milano, Ferrara, Verona and Bettina no fire fighting or rescue operation could be performed. The area needed by the fire-fighting apparatus such as a fire tender is encroached by the illegal shopping complex.
I was born and brought up in Delhi and had witnessed the UPHAAR cinema fire tragedy. UPHAAR cinema fire was a consequence of bye-laws violations that were overlooked by the authorities such as DDA and DVB for bribe. There have been several other fire incidents in the country such as Carlton towers Bangalore 2010 that left 12 DEAD and the recent 2011 AMRI hospital fire that left 98 DEAD.
By April 2011 my flat was fully ready for handover and other allottees in the group housing started getting possession of their respective flats but after repeated the builder refused to handover my flat. Mahagun Builder appealed the restraining order of the forum in the high court of Allahabad and the State Commission but has lost . Each time I had to be present in the courts taking time off from work. I was under immense financial strain as the legal, travel expenses on top of the rent and EMI was draining every bit of my savings. Mahagun’s strategy was to tire me out so that I can succumb to his terms. There is no reason for him to with-hold my flat which has been paid for in year 2008 itself. I approached the Allahabad high court by means of writ petition seeking cancellation of sanction given to the commercial building. The High court directed me to file a petition before the State Government of Uttar Pradesh which I did.
This ordeal started taking a bad turn in August 2011 as I contracted cardiac problems due to the physical strain and was advised complete bed rest. I had to stay out of work from August till October 2011. I suffered irreparable damage to my health due to the strain and have not fully recovered yet.
In August 2011 Mahagun builder called a meeting to discuss the issues. In the meeting Mahagun directors Amit Jain and Dheeraj Jain threatened to never handover my flat. They said that till the time complaint before the consumer forum is not withdrawn the flat will not be handed over. The told me to sell off my flat and leave. I refused to give up.
State Government heard my petition in December 2011 and a decision came in Februray 2012 whereby the sanction to construct the shopping complex was cancelled. I had little hope in the State Government but they had come through. State government directed GDA to demolish the illegal shopping complex. The State government order is available here https://mahagunmascot.blogspot.in/2012/03/mahagun-mascot-shopping-complex.html
In May 2012 the district consumer forum passed final orders and directed the builder to demolish the shopping complex building in its entirety. The forum held Mahagun guilty of Unethical Trade Practice and imposed a notional fine apart from the direction to demolish the shopping complex. The order (in Hindi) and its English translation are available at https://mahagunmascot.blogspot.in/2012/05/translation-district-forum-orders.html The landmark judgment of the honorable forum was even covered by some of the local newspapers. The newspaper articles can be found at https://navbharattimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/12968921.cms and https://m.livehindustan.com/mobile/news/deshlocal/deshlocalnews/article1-story-0-0-231216.html
The object of this post is to warn the middle income service class flat buyer and show him the real face of Mahagun India Pvt. Ltd. Behind the giant hording and the full page ad lurks the true evil, the evil that will risk the life safety of its customers to make disproportionate profits.