Victims of RCL-RBIL Builders unite to fight for justice

Mumbai, 8th February, 2018: Flat buyers cheated by RCL-RBIL group of builders held a meeting last Saturday (3rd Feb) at Veer Kotwal Udyan in Dadar to discuss their future course of action. About 30 flat buyers attended the meeting. The majority were from two large housing projects in Karjat taluka, named Liberty Horizons and Ten Square, where . Also represented in the gathering was Marina Alibaug, currently being marketed as Cliff Haven by Enamour Realty Pvt Ltd and Sunvenn Advisors Pvt Ltd.

Victims of RCL-RBIL pose in front of a banner which asks, "Who will give us justice? What justice?". Contrasting the pleasant dreams shown in 2012 with the barren reality of 2018, the banner ends with
"Cheated by Real Buildcon Infrastructure Ltd, Karjat".

Overview of the Scam

RCL-RBIL builders collected over sixty crore rupees as booking amounts in 2011-12 from Liberty Horizons, Ten Square and Marina projects, and have not delivered any flats. Seven years later, Liberty Horizons and Ten Square are at a standstill, and Marina flats are being sold to a new set of buyers by renaming the project as Cliff Haven. Real Buildcon Infrastructure Ltd, having its registered office in Vashi, is at the epicentre of this huge scam. Its associated concern, Realliance Constructions Ltd, is not registered with the Registrar of Companies. Its name is deceptively similar to Reliance Construction Ltd. The company is referred to as RCL Homes on its website.  

RBIL directors Vaishali Savalkar and Minal Ramji Umrania are in charge of customer-handing in all the projects; they routinely mislead and browbeat customers on phone and email. Vaishali Savalkar is the power-of-attorney holder for registering the agreements. Anand Uttam Kadam and his wife Kavita Kadam seem to specialize in taking the blame and handling the police and court matters. Moorji Jethalal Fariya is the original land owner who conferred development rights on Pravin Hirji Thakkar, who then transferred the development rights to RCL and RBIL via power-of-attorney.

The builders rarely reply to emails, and refuse to accept Speedpost and registered post from customers and even law enforcement agencies. On the phone, they give rude and evasive replies to queries about refund of booking amount and delivery of flats, and they bluntly refuse to register the projects with MahaRERA. "Who is MahaRERA? What do we have to do with them?" they ask defiantly. They have refused to appear before the RERA authority even after being summoned.

Project Liberty Horizons

Liberty Horizons was launched by RBIL in September 2012 as a project with 1008 flats to be built in three phases at Kothimbe village. After substantial construction work was completed, phase A and B have been at a standstill for the past three years. Work on Phase C never got started. The consideration value of the flats varied between Rs 5.25 and Rs 7.5 lakh, according to their sizes. Flat buyers typically paid between 30% and 70% of the consideration value as booking amount. It is reckoned that the booking amounts collected between 2011 and 2013 was over Rs 20 crore.

Liberty Horizons, at a standstill since 2014.

Project Ten Square

Project Ten Square by RCL Homes in Kothimbe village was started in 2010. It had 248 housing units, ranging from studio apartments to bungalows and other configurations too. Its base price for a studio apartment was Rs 10 to 12 lakh. For the past three years, this project too is at a standstill. Some buildings are 70% complete, making the project look like a neighbourhood of haunted houses. The builders collected over Rs 30 crore as booking amounts from Ten Square.

Ten Square -- deserted like a ghost town from a Hollywood movie.

RCL-RBIL have swallowed the life-savings of approximately 1,500 middle-class families living in Mumbai region -- over Rs 50 crore, not counting interest. Will Maharashtra police be able to rein in these crooks, and give justice to these families?

WITH INPUTS FROM
Keerthy Naik
Mob 9137050532 / Whatsapp +254739176807
keerthy.p.naik@gmail.com

ISSUED IN PUBLIC INTEREST BY
Krishnaraj Rao
9821588114
krish.kkphoto@gmail.com