Lodha NCP buyers, did you elect a CHAWL-DWELLER as Chief Promoter of your societies?

Mumbai, 8th December 2018: Going behind the backs of the flat owners and residents of the posh Lodha New Cuffe Parade, a Lodha employee named Vinod R Parab has submitted applications on behalf of Dioro, Elisium, Enchante (and maybe Evoq also) to the state cooperation department on 17th October, 2018.  

Lodha employee Vinod R Parab, who gave his residence address as "BDD Chawl, NM Joshi Marg, Mumbai 400011" claimed to have been elected as chief promoter by nine flat-owners each of Dioro, Elisium and Enchante.  Many flat-owners, when contacted, said that they had no knowledge of their name and signature being on such an application! 

EVIDENTLY, NO SUCH ELECTIONS EVER HAPPENED. The law requires that a meeting of the promoters of the proposed cooperative society is held, where the chief promoter is elected, and a resolution is passed for seeking a certain name registration by the government department. It is evident that no such meeting was held. It is ridiculous to claim that 27 residents of these posh towers -- where flats cost between two and seven crore rupees -- would ever elect a rank outsider as the "chief promoter" of their cooperative housing societies, and that too someone who lives in BDD Chawl! 

All the required fields in the application forms (dates of said meetings etc) are intentionally left blank. When contacted on the phone number given in the application -- Lodha Group board line 23024400 -- Vinod Parab failed to give satisfactory replies to our queries. At first, he said that the legal department would respond to our emailed queries, and then he reverted on phone with vague explanations that such meetings were being held "all the time", and that registering the societies is a RERA requirement.

Download and read the applications submitted:

• Dioro

• Elisium

• Enchante

Serious Criminal Offenses are made out

Either the flat owners were tricked into giving  signatures on the forms, or the signatures were forged and photocopied on the application forms. The aggrieved flat-owners should file a police complaint for registering an FIR against against Vinod Parab, his immediate superiors and employers, for the following offenses:

• Identity theft (Indian Penal Code section 419)
• Cheating (IPC 420)
• Creating false government documents, fraud & forgery (IPC 463, 464 and 465)
• Criminal conspiracy (IPC 120).

Why such fishy actions? 

Why were the flat-owners and residents not involved in filing these forms before the state Cooperation Department? If everything was above board, why did the builders resort to such underhand tactics? It appears fishy.

It is impossible to read the builder's mind and fathom his exact intentions behind the devious actions. But let us take an educated guess at some possible motives:

1) WRIT PETITION. Society registration was initiated in October, immediately after disposal of the writ petition filed by residents. Why? The timing suggests that this initiative was designed to throw roadblocks in the way of further litigation by residents. The proposed cooperative society would not only be a necessary party in every future litigation by the residents, it may be the only party to have locus standi to file such litigations. Societies formed with promoters/leaders handpicked by the builder (and not by leaders who filed the writ petition) may not want to litigate against the builder.

2) CONVEYANCE. The builder arguably has no intention to hand over the assets (i.e. give conveyance of building, appurtenant land and common amenities, and also corpus fund) to the residents. Registering societies without involving the association leaders could be a way to evade proper assets handover during society formation, and also create false documents and waivers in the builder's favour.

3) DIVIDE-AND-RULE. By forcibly registering separate societies for each tower, the builder could impose a divide-and-rule policy. As per MMRDA, Lodha NCP is one single project, and it is therefore possible for residents to form one single cooperative society. Having a single cooperative society would make it easy for residents to take control over the common amenities and project land and become independent from the builder. Having separate societies would enable the builder to retain control over the entire project, and commercially exploit the residents in perpetuity.

Whatever be the builder's intentions, flat-owners of Lodha NCP should not allow fraud and forgery to be carried out in their name. Being vigilant citizens, they should file a police complaint at the local police station, and endorse a copy to the state Cooperation Department. If they sit quiet now and allow the builder's people to create false government documents with their signatures, they may find it difficult to undo the damage later on. Lodha NCP residents would do well to remember the old adage, "A stitch in time saves nine"!

ISSUED IN PUBLIC INTEREST BY
Krishnaraj Rao
98215 88114 / 81694 71229
krish.kkphoto@gmail.com

WITH KEY INPUTS FROM
Shilpi Thard
98331 32303