look news india
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has tightened the biggest noose so far against builders who were embezzling the hard-earned money of thousands of innocent homebuyers across the country, not giving possession and committing financial irregularities in collusion with bank officials. In compliance with the strict orders of the Supreme Court, the investigating agency on Thursday registered 5 new criminal first information reports (FIRs) on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and misuse of official position.
As soon as the case was registered, special teams of CBI started a massive search operation simultaneously at 12 major locations located in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Pune. According to the investigating agency, this action has been taken to break the unholy nexus (Builder-Banker Nexus) of builders, promoters and unknown officials of various financial institutions (Financial Institutions/Banks), which illegally diverted the project funds of innocent buyers to other companies.
According to the official release of CBI, the 5 new cases registered on the directions of the Supreme Court mainly involve two big real estate developers:
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4 cases on Ozone Group: Four separate criminal cases have been registered against housing projects of Ozone Group and its related entities in Bengaluru and Mumbai.
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1 Case on M/s Vivansaa Baalsam: A case has been registered in connection with cheating flat buyers and fund diversion in Vivansa Balsam’s housing project in Bengaluru.
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Unidentified officials of financial institutions also named: In the FIR, not only the builders but also the officials of various banks and housing finance companies have been accused, who flouted the rules and sanctioned advance loans without construction work and gave free hand to the builders to divert funds.
During the raids, CBI officials have collected a large amount of important evidence from the corporate offices of the builders, private residences of the promoters and locations related to financial transactions:
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The seized items include ledgers, papers of benami companies, bank account details, laptops, hard disks and several digital devices.
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The forensic and financial audit team of the investigating agency is going through these documents to find out to which fake shell companies the crores of rupees paid by flat buyers in the form of EMIs and installments were transferred.
Lakhs of homebuyers, troubled by subvention schemes and pending projects in the real estate sector, had approached the Supreme Court seeking relief. The apex court had already clearly commented that home buyers cannot be held hostage and the collusion between banks and builders needs to be investigated to the bottom.
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CBI has already registered cases against builders across the country under the guidelines of the Supreme Court. 50 cases Had registered.
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With the addition of these 5 new cases, the total number of cases registered under builder-banker nexus has increased. 55 Has occurred.
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In this series, the agency has also filed the 20th charge sheet in the special court against Ajnara India Ltd and its promoters, in which the then officials of ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, PNB Housing and Samman Capital have also been made accused.
CBI has made it clear that it will go to the root of the economic crimes committed against homebuyers and no white collar or builder embezzling buyers’ money will be spared.