MahaRERA Scam: Two untraceable architects who created building plan layouts.

KALYAN: The two architects who prepared and certified the plan layouts of the majority of the buildings constructed illegally are wanted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is looking into the MahaRERA scam involving 65 developers in Kalyan-Dombivli. However, the ED discovered that both architects provided false information about their firms and are therefore untraceable.

The ED is conducting its own investigation into the MahaRERA scam since it believes the developers utilized illicit funds to erect these structures unlawfully, cost the state government money and collected all papers pertaining to the fraud from KDMC and the MahaRERA office.

According to the sources, ED was able to identify the two architects of two firms—Golden Dimension and Vastu Rachana—through documents. These architects were responsible for the majority of the fraudulent developers’ architectural designs and layouts for building permits.

According to the sources, an ED team went to Dombivli last month to look into two architecture businesses at the provided addresses, but they discovered that no such offices were located at those locations, and the architects’ provided mobile numbers belonged to someone else.

The Indian Institute of Architects (IIA), which the ED recently contacted for information about two firms after failing to search both architects’ offices, responded this week by directing them to the Council of Architects (COA), noting that while membership in the IIA is optional, registration with the COA is required in order to practice architecture.

You may recall that a special investigative team (SIT) established by Thane police, which is also looking into the scandal, has only made 10 arrests so far, including 5 developers and 5 individuals who illegally submitted fake paperwork for building permits in the overall RERA scam.

Since the state government made it mandatory for developers to obtain RERA certificates in order to sell any flats, these developers took advantage of the coordination gaps between KDMC and RERA in order to submit forged building plan approval documents to the RERA office.

The SIT found that the developers did not obtain permission from the town planning department of KDMC or any other relevant department, and they instead prepared forged documents of building permission.