Developer held in cheating nearly 80 flat buyers in Mumbai.

After two years on the run and changing around a dozen SIM cards, a 51-year-old developer was arrested on Wednesday from Andheri area by the city economic offences wing (EOW) police, where he was staying in a rented flat. The accused, who is embroiled in five cases, had offered flats in the saleable portion of redeveloped buildings to about 60 people. Until March 9, the accused has been kept in remand.

Gopi Kadam, a flat buyer, had made a complaint against Amogh Sawant, Director of Amogh Enterprises and Adit Enterprises, alleging that neither the flat was given nor the money was paid back. Sawant took up the redevelopment project in Nehru Nagar, Kurla, as per the complainant.

“He took Rs 2.62 crore from about 20 purchasers, and in 2010, he promised them apartments in the new building. He constructed up to four storeys, while he had obtained bookings for flats up to the ninth floor, he only had permission for the four-storeys building, but the buyers were kept in darkness,” an officer said. 

Furthermore, also current owners, whose houses were demolished, were not getting rent from Sawant after a few years. A complaint against him was lodged in 2018. Two similar complaints have been received by the EOW from other police stations, though one case is investigated by the Nehru Nagar and Tilak Nagar police stations.

Rajvardhan Sinha, EOW chief, made a team involving DCP Parag Manere, senior inspector Ramchandra Lotlikar and sub-inspector Balwant Patil to catch Sawant. The overall sum is approximately Rs 10 crore in the three EOW cases.