Rebuttal of Sanyam Realtors to article on Ashok Odyssey

30th November, 2017: Below is the exchange of correspondence that happened when we sought rebuttal from Akshay Jain and Rakesh Jain of Sanyam Realtors to this article on the position of Bhagtani's allottees in Executive, Ghatkopar, that has been registered as Ashok Odyssey by Sanyam.

From: Akshay Jain <akshay.jain@rjgroup.in>
Date: Tue, Nov 28, 2017 at 11:43 PM
Subject: Re: Attn Mr Akshay Jain: Requesting your Rebuttal to attached article about Ashok Odyssey
To: Krishnaraj Rao <krish.kkphoto@gmail.com>
Cc: RJ Group Info <info@rjgroup.in>

Dear Mr. Krishnaraj Rao,

We have received an email from you today on 28^th Nov. 2017, wherein you have placed before us a brief compilation of certain material gathered by you in an attempt to connect our project with other projects or JayCee group and cast an image in a different light and wherein you have sought our response with an assurance of reproducing the same in ‘verbatim’, accordingly we place our response as under:-

1.    Firstly, we fail to understand that on one hand you are yourself admitting that the people who have booked the flats in the said project are sitting silently and peacefully and inspite of that you wish to publish this article to communicate the information through mass media for what reasons? And to what audience exactly? Infact, all concerned parties are totally appraised about the day to day developments of the said project and they have met us personally and visit our site regularly. 

2.     The purchasers of the flats in the Ashok Odyssey are silent as compared to the purchasers of other projects of JayCee group is because unlike other projects, we have stepped in to this project to execute and complete the project vide Deed of Cancellation dated 9^th June 2017 which you have already seen and yourself reproduced from MahaRERA website. We have already started the work of the project. 

3.    After having stepped in, we have paid up necessary premiums and obtained further permissions and have successfully obtained Full CC for Tower 1 just recently on 10^th November 2017.

4.    We have also obtained clearances from Banks and obtained APF (project approval) to enable the customers to register the agreement and obtain bank loans which was not in place prior to our stepping into the project.

5.    We are in touch with all customers on a one on one basis and are in process of getting them migrated from EDMD Infracon Pvt. Ltd. of JayCee Group to our company. We have not denied possession of the flat to any of the purchasers who have booked in this project through EDMD Infracon Pvt. Ltd. 

6.    Contrary to what you have pointed out in your draft, we have already started issuing fresh allotment letters to the customers of EDMD Infracon Pvt. Ltd. and we shall update the data on the website of MahaRERA as per the norms prescribed by MahaRERA. We are also executing final agreement for sale with the customers to their utmost satisfaction.

7.    The eight flat purchasers that you have mentioned being displayed on MahaRERA website are those who had booked directly with us prior to registration of the project with MahaRERA.

8.    We are in agreement with your ‘bottom-line’ that the allottees of Executive shall be given a home in the said project and we are already doing the same.

9.    We hope we have preliminarily answered all the questions raised by you in your email.

10. Since you have drafted the article in “public interest” we wish you our best compliments for the same. We also appeal to you that you being a responsible media person shall inform the people about the true facts that the project of Ashok Odyssey is in progress smoothly and as is progressing as per norms laid down by various government authorities, inspite of various challenges being faced by us.

11. Further, we request you to refrain from making any remarks or statements directly or indirectly against us, our company or our project that are not true and do not have supporting evidence and that shall put us is bad light or demean or tarnish our reputation and cause defamation or losses to us or our projects or stall or delay our projects or create a misunderstanding or unrest or panic amongst our customers thereby leading to losses. We also request you to refrain from connecting our existing project with other projects of Bhagtanis merely and solely inroder to sensationalize your news article as the matter of fact is that the two are completely separate companies operated by separate individuals.

12. All the documents supporting our statement above are in public domain for you to verify and confirm.

13. We also request you to give us your brief introduction, as to which publication house you are associated with and as to where is your office and what is the nature of your publication so that we can make positive use of our communication and association.

Many Thanks,

Akshay Jain

For Sanyam Realtors Pvt. Ltd.

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From: Krishnaraj Rao <krish.kkphoto@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Nov 29, 2017 at 3:20 AM
Subject: Re: Attn Mr Akshay Jain: Requesting your Rebuttal to attached article about Ashok Odyssey
To: Akshay Jain <akshay.jain@rjgroup.in>
Cc: RJ Group Info <info@rjgroup.in>

Dear Mr Akshay Jain,

Thank you for your prompt response. It is very well-written indeed. It would have been convincing if it were supported with actual numbers and a list of names of the allottees whom you have inherited from EDMD Infracon Pvt Ltd.

Since there are only 98 flats to account for, and probably a much smaller number of allottees who booked in the Executive project, it should be a couple of hours' work to email me the details, documents and correspondence that make your claims of clear dealings verifiable.

Everything that I have written in the article is supported by a document or verifiable record. Please send me a rebuttal that does likewise.

Addressing your point no. 11 where you have voiced your concern about your project being tainted by being associated with the Bhagtani projects, here's what I would like to say: I am willing to concede to your request and delete every single reference to Bhagtani in my article, and replace it with "EDMD Infracon", on the condition that you provide me the abovementioned substantiation of your claim of clear dealings with the customers whom you have inherited from EDMD Infracon/Jaycee Homes/Bhagtanis.

I do not wish to cause "misunderstanding or unrest or panic" amongst your customer, or write in a way that may cause losses to you. But since there appears to be many good reasons to alert your customers, I intend to write in a way that alerts them. Please convince me that there is no good reason to alert your customers, and I will not write.

Coming to point no. 12: I have carefully gone through your RERA declaration and documents, and searched on the internet for documents. I don't think there is anything in the public domain that supports your claims. I would be happy to be proven wrong; kindly take the trouble do send links to documents (or PDF files) that support your claim.

As for my credentials: I am not the employee of any particular media house, and that may be why I am able to write more incisively. My audiences are usually people who are kept in the dark about essential things that matter. My writing helps to educate my audience, and creates awareness and action by joining some dots. Quite often, mass media journalists read my articles (I also issue them as press releases over email), and they get useful leads and background materials for their stories.

I am an investigative journalist, blogger, activist, RTI trainer and a kind of paralegal consultant in the area of cooperatives, housing, RERA, etc. You can read a lot of my writings here: https://thebravepedestrian.blogspot.in/

In case I don't receive any further documents and communications from you, I shall publish the article along with your rebuttal in their present form.

Thank you once again.

Regards,

Krishnaraj Rao

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From: Krishnaraj Rao <krish.kkphoto@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Nov 29, 2017 at 4:12 PM
Subject: Re: Attn Mr Akshay Jain: Requesting your Rebuttal to attached article about Ashok Odyssey
To: Akshay Jain <akshay.jain@rjgroup.in>
Cc: RJ Group Info <info@rjgroup.in>

Dear Mr Akshay Jain,

Good afternoon. Further to my reply to you last night, I have received no further communication from your side.

The article and your rebuttal to it will go live on my blog in one hour, and thereafter, it will be disseminated to mass media and social media.

Regards,

Krishnaraj Rao

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From: Akshay Jain <akshay.jain@rjgroup.in>
Date: Wed, Nov 29, 2017 at 4:54 PM
Subject: Re: Attn Mr Akshay Jain: Requesting your Rebuttal to attached article about Ashok Odyssey
To: Krishnaraj Rao <krish.kkphoto@gmail.com>
Cc: RJ Group Info <info@rjgroup.in>

Dear Mr. Krishnaraj Rao,

We are not in office today hence sending you the following response using my cell phone. 

Firstly, We thank you for finding merit in our response.

At this stage the migration process is being done in phases and it is definitely not a couple of hour’s work to compile and submit data which is likely to be published. Also we do not have any specific permission from our customers to share their names and the nature of their financial dealings and investments with us. Infact, we will have to seek separate permission from each and every individual, which we will before giving out the names.

Since you had given a dead line for today, we as mentioned gave a ‘preliminary’ response to your email. Infact, if given a choice and opportunity, we can assure you that you will not only remove the name of Bhagtanis but you will even delete the article in totality as we can show you form our records that we are taking over all customers who have booked through EDMD Infracon Pvt. Ltd. But with a timer set from your end, compiling material in a haste is not the option we wish to exercise. It is not fair on your part.

We embrace your intention that you do not wish to cause any unrest or panic and do not intent to cause any losses to us. Your attempt to alert the people who ‘need to be alerted’ is not appropriate as these people are already aware of the day to day developments. Infact your attempt will be damaging to us as your blogs / publications will be read and shared by many more people who are ‘not interested parties in our project’ and it will obstruct and damage the future progress of our porject as it will malign the name of the project inspite of have rebranded it after the take-over. And we are sure that you will have no control that the said article shall circulate only to those 39 / 40 purchasers as mentioned in your draft. A good reason for you to not alert the customers are that “they are already being alerted by us and people employed by us”.

As of now there may be several aggrieved people in the market who have been affected by the Bhagtanis, they may not necessarily be as learned and wise as you are and they may not be able to differentiate between the finer prints. They will use your article as a tool to further cause harm to the Bhagtanis and it will cause trouble to us and indirectly it will derail our project.

Whatever documents you have not been able to locate on MahaRERA website might be obstructed for viewing of citizen by MahaRERA. We have all sets of documents in place and we are ready and willing to give you inspection of our title related and MCGM related documents at any time you may deem fit and proper.

It is good to know that you are in active journalism in the area of co-operatives, housing, RERA etc as more and more people need to be made aware about the provisions and their rights.

We once again appeal to you that we are not in a position to share the data at such a short notice. Over a period of last 24 hours we have shared enough genuine information with you that should enable you to take a wise decision and we hope that good counsel prevail over you.

We once again request you to not cause any harm or damage to the sentiments of general public with respect to our project and its future sales.

With respect to our recent exchanges of email we hereby call upon you to not to publish any article on any forum with respect to us or our project and we request you to not to associate our company with the Bhagtanis.

Many Thanks

Akshay Jain

For Sanyam Realtors Pvt. Ltd.

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From: Krishnaraj Rao <krish.kkphoto@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Nov 29, 2017 at 5:29 PM
Subject: Re: Attn Mr Akshay Jain: Requesting your Rebuttal to attached article about Ashok Odyssey
To: Akshay Jain <akshay.jain@rjgroup.in>
Cc: RJ Group Info <info@rjgroup.in>

Dear Mr Akshay Jain,

Thank you for your timely response.

1) You say: "Infact, if given a choice and opportunity, we can assure you that you will not only remove the name of Bhagtanis but you will even delete the article in totality as we can show you form our records that we are taking over all customers who have booked through EDMD Infracon Pvt. Ltd."

My response: Yes, I agree that I will delete this article if I am given sufficient documents and verifiable facts that show that you are genuinely taking over all customers who paid booking amounts for "Executive". In the interest of all concerned, I will extend the "timer" to tomorrow noon. In the meantime, kindly start emailing me some documents to prove the genuineness of your claims.

2) You say, "...we will have to seek separate permission from each and every individual, which we will before giving out the names."

My response: I would argue that such privacy concerns are not only trivial in the present context of the Bhagtani scam, they are actually misplaced and misleading. Regardless of any such concerns, I will not extend the timer beyond tomorrow noon.

Once again, I request you to start sending me the documents that can be used to verify your claims.

Warm Regards,

Krishnaraj Rao