New Delhi: The economic offences wing has registered a case against a city-based developer and four of its directors on allegations of cheating more than 200 homebuyers of roughly ₹300 crore collected against a housing project that, investigators say, never obtained its construction milestone clearances.
The complaint, consolidated from buyers across three years of bookings, alleges that the company continued to collect construction-linked instalments well past the point at which its own engineers had halted work — and that sanctioned plans for the tower configuration on which sales were made were never filed with the authority.
Bank records subpoenaed by the wing show that a substantial portion of the collections was routed to group entities outside the project’s designated escrow account, an official said, declining to be named as the investigation is ongoing.
Homebuyer groups have welcomed the filing but cautioned that recovery depends on attaching assets before they are encumbered. The buyers’ association has separately moved the real estate regulator seeking refund with interest.
The developer, in a statement, called the dispute “a funding delay, not a fraud” and said it was committed to completing the project through a new construction partner. Officials said the company’s directors have been asked to appear for questioning next week.
The case is the fourth major booking against a developer in the region this year, and enforcement officials describe project-escrow diversion as the fastest-growing category of real-estate complaints they receive.
