Property buyers protest against cheating builder in Pune

More than 100 aggrieved apartment buyers, led by city-based Akhil Bhartiya Grahak Panchayat (ABGP), carried out a protest march against local real estate developer, Trishul Builders, from Bund Garden to the builder’s office in Koregaon Park on Sunday.

Working president of ABGP, Suryakant Pathak, said his consumer group was helping the aggrieved homebuyers get justice.

“This protest will open the eyes of gullible people against those who try to cheat people of their hard-earned money. Besides, we also want to send out the message that the treacherous cannot have an easy way out,” Pathak said.

According to these flat purchasers, the developer had allegedly cheated hundreds of flat buyers and failed to deliver their houses at the Shalini Lake View project in Undri, despite taking money from them in 2009.

DNA had highlighted the issue in its July 8 report ‘Consumer group accuses builder of fraud’. The under-construction building in Undri was demolished by the government authorities on December 25, 2010, as the land belonged to the Pune Zilla Parishad since 1978. The irked flat buyers complained that they were kept in the dark about the demolition by the builder.

 According to Pathak, more than 100 flat purchasers protested in Koregaon Park with placards and banners against the builder.

“The police supported us and requested us not to protest with the huge crowd in the area, as it is a residential area. Hence, we marched in small groups from Bund Garden and carried out our protest without disturbing the residents of the area,” one of the flat buyers, Vijay Shroff, told DNA.

However, the builder’s office was closed.

When contacted on telephone, the owner of Trishul Builders, Hemant Buddhiwant said, “We will file a defamation case against the ABGP. It was the police who had asked us to keep the office closed fearing violent protests. It was we who called the police.”

However, Pathak denied these allegations, claiming that the police had come to the spot for the security of the flat owners. “We don’t support violence in our fight against corruption,” he said.