The Brave Pedestrian

Mumbai, 9th September, 2018: Victims of Bhagtani Serenity are experiencing a powerful current sweeping them towards settlement with the Bhagtani builders. What the builders want is a clean chit i.e. withdrawal of criminal complaints, quashing of FIRs, and closure of proceedings under Negotiable Instruments Act. What they are offering in exchange is conveyance of Serenity project land and/or transfer of development rights in favour of "Serenity Welfare Association". Invitation to the first meeting of this association is being circulated on Whatsapp. It says: Dear All, 1st Meeting of ''SERENITY WELFARE ASSOCIATION" Expect to be held on 23 September 2018..... All Serenity  Member's (Buyers) are Requested to Attend..... Time: BTN 10:00 -11:00 AM Venue : Serenity Plot or as Decided by Member's (Buyers) Has this association been formed and registered? Has a civil case already been filed by this association? It is doubtful. But it appears that the lea...

Mumbai, 27th August, 2018: Last week, Sapphire Welfare Association's (SWA) consent terms -- designed to getting Bhagtanis off the hook -- were set aside by an order of Bombay High Court . It was thanks to another association, called Dahisar Sapphire Flat Owner Welfare Association (DSFOWA), who pinpointed to the high court a deemed conveyance orders in favour of Panch Dham Society.  The Panch Dham deemed conveyance orders proved beyond doubt that Sapphire project land was not  available for transfer by Bhagtani to SWA. (Association-wallahs of other Bhagtani projects shepherding gullible victims towards accepting project land are requested to take note.) Read the Panch Dham deemed conveyance orders here . Panch Dham orders also put the spotlight on two new Bhagtani family members who were hitherto unknown. Has anybody ever heard of Anand P Bhagtani and Narain P Bhagtani, brothers of our well-known Lacchman P Bhagtani?  Say hello to two brand-new Bhagtanis...

Mumbai, 22 August, 2018: Bhagtani Savannah victims have gotten used to being kept in the dark, and making their legal decisions based on very little information. In this respect, Vrushali Patil's case was like a bright ray of light in a dimly-lit room. Whatever else the merits or demerits of this legal initiative, one major benefit was the enormous amount of information that it yielded -- not only for Savannah but for Bhagtani victims of all Bhagtani projects. Paradoxically, people seem to have little willingness to analyze and digest this information! It appears that Bhagtani victims have grown tired of exercising their brains. "When are we getting our money or our flats? We are exhausted! We don't want to use our brains any longer!" is what they seem to be saying. (This is a natural human reaction in the face of tragic loss and hopelessness, but unfortunately, such reactions will not lead to any productive results!)  Of the 1300 pages of material available, ...

12th July, 2018, Mumbai: My blog criticizing the consent terms of Sapphire Welfare Association (SWA) with Bhagtanis raised a hornet's nest. Some angry people asked whether I had any solution for getting their money back. If I didn't, I should just shut up, they said. (They also said a whole bunch of other things, but let us focus on the constructive part.) Yes, since you ask, I have specific ideas about how to get your money back. My proposed method is: Cash-and-carry (CAC). If a party's credit-worthiness is zero and he is already deep in debt, trade with them on CAC terms. Stop extending credit!  What Bhagtanis want from you now is quashing of FIR and withdrawal of complaints. What you want is your money. So you should aim to get what you want at the same time as (or before) Bhagtanis what they want -- not a day later! Like they say in movies, "Ek haath se do, ek haath se lo". Shopkeepers call it cash-and-carry. Everything else can be negotiated, but f...

Mumbai, 7th July, 2018: I wrote an article yesterday disclosing the consent terms signed by Sapphire Welfare Association (SWA) with Bhagtani bulders. *(In case you haven't read it, click here and read it first.) Until we got our hands on these consent terms two days ago and placed it in the public domain, it was a closely guarded secret.  If consent terms is a straightforward deal, why didn't SWA announce their achievement immediately? Why were there only cryptic references such as "It is time to buy the mithai, but don't distribute it". Why keep it secret? The reason is: the consent terms are a great escape for Bhagtanis. They seek to give a clean chit and easy exit from the Sapphire cases to the absconding builders. Obvious issues in the consent terms : 1) If fugitives evading Indian judiciary sign an agreement in India through their power-of-attorney, what is its legal validity?  The consent terms signed by Diipesh Bhagtani in jail, on behalf of J...

Mumbai, 6th July, 2018: When the Sapphire Welfare Association (SWA) enrolled members and filed its Civil Suit/Plaint in Bombay High Court in a rush-rush hush-hush manner, the victims of Bhagtani Sapphire were split into two groups: (1) those who believed that their intent was genuinely to help the victims and (2) those who believed that their intent was to help the Bhagtanis get their criminal cases quashed, by giving the victims a lollipop.  My personal belief (based on my one year's experience of how Bhagtani's stooges manipulate people's minds through Whatsapp groups) is that the intention was solely to help Bhagtanis to come out of their legal troubles. I believe that gullible victims were drawn into the association by showing them them false hopes and dreams. And I believe that the consent terms signed between Bhagtani and SWA on 26th July, based on which the plaint before Bombay High Court was withdrawn, is fraudulent.  Through these consent terms, Bhagtani'...

Mumbai, 29th June 2018: Vashi Economic Offenses Wing registered FIR yesterday against the land holders and original builders of Marina project at Alibag (now called Cliff Haven), for cheating the home-buyers, and neither delivering a flat nor refunding the money paid to them. The ones named as accused in the FIR are Kavita Anand Kadam, Anand Uttam Kadam, Vaishali Vasudev Savalkar, Pravin Hirji Thakkar, Neeta Sankhe and Sunny Khamboj.  The directors of Enamour Realty and Sunvenn Advisors, who are builders and marketers of Cliff Haven -- which now stands on the plot where Marina project was advertised and marketed -- are NOT NAMED AS ACCUSED in the FIR, although they are mentioned in the police statement given by complainant Rajeev Khot, who had booked a flat in Marina, Alibaug.  An angry mob of over 200 RCL-RBIL victims from various projects, including Marina,  protested outside the builders' Vashi office on 24th February, in the presence of media. The F...