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A special court in Mumbai has issued summonses to Prathamesh Developers, its partner Pravin Raut, and Jitendra Mehta of Mehta Developers in connection with the Patra Chawl redevelopment project. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has charged the accused with money laundering, alleging they diverted funds and sold Floor Space Index (FSI) rights, instead of constructing flats for the tenants. The case involves financial irregularities in the redevelopment of the 47-acre Patra Chawl in Goregaon, which was intended to provide homes to 672 tenant families.
A special court in Mumbai has summoned Prathamesh Developers, its partner Pravin Raut, and Jitendra Mehta of Mehta Developers in connection with the Patra Chawl redevelopment project. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has charged the accused with money laundering, alleging they diverted funds and sold Floor Space Index (FSI) rights instead of constructing flats for the tenants. Advertisement
The case pertains to the redevelopment of the 47-acre Patra Chawl in Goregaon, which was intended to provide homes to 672 tenant families. In 2008, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) assigned the redevelopment contract to Guru Ashish Construction Pvt Ltd (GACPL), a sister company of the now-defunct Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL). GACPL was supposed to build 672 flats for the tenants and also give some flats to MHADA. It was free to sell the remaining land to private developers.
However, the tenants did not receive any flats as the company failed to redevelop Patra Chawl and instead sold land parcels and FSI rights to other builders for Rs.1,034 crore, according to the ED. The central agency claims that GACPL, through HDIL, launched a project in 2010 named Meadows at Patra Chawl and collected Rs.138 crore against bookings from 458 prospective homebuyers. The ED alleges that the accused generated a total amount of Rs.1,039.79 crore from the illegal sale of FSI. Some part of the amount was utilized in developing the project, which remains incomplete, while most of the funds were siphoned off to various accounts, the ED alleges.
The ED further claims that HDIL promoter Sarang Wadhawan and Pravin Raut of Prathamesh Developers managed to sell FSI to third-party developers and collected Rs.1,039.79 crore during 2010-2014. Instead of using these sale proceeds for the construction of flats for tenants and for the MHADA portion, they allegedly diverted the amounts to various accounts of HDIL and its group companies. The ED alleges that Prathamesh Developers was utilized by Pravin Raut for integrating the diverted proceeds of crime for acquiring immovable properties in the company's name.
The special court, after taking cognizance of the supplementary chargesheet filed by the ED, issued summonses to Prathamesh Developers through its partner Pravin Raut and Jitendra Mehta. The court noted that the company and Mehta were involved in generating and siphoning off the proceeds of crime, and therefore, it is necessary to issue processes (summonses) against them.
Source PTI
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