Maha: Court rejects pre-arrest bail plea of developer accused of cheating home buyers

 Thane: A court in Maharashtra’s Thane district has rejected the pre-arrest bail plea of a developer from Bhayander in a case of cheating home buyers.

District judge R R Kakani on Tuesday rejected the pre-arrest bail plea of developer Mahendra Kothari.

The Navghar police had on March 28, 2019 filed an FIR against Kothari and four others under section 420 (cheating) and other relevant provisions of the IPC, the Maharashtra Ownership Flats (Regulation of extent, the promotion of construction, sale, management and transfer) Act and Maharashtra RERA Act of 2017.

Besides Kothari, the other accused in the case were Baburaj Panicker, Nihant Baburaj Panicker, Gaurav Baburaj Panicker and Sayyed Hasan.

According to the victims, the partners of Chaitanya Builders and Developers at Mira Road had taken money from them for tenements, but had not given them flats and cheated them. As per the FIR, the amount involved in the fraud was to the tune of over Rs 1.30 crore and the victims were cheated between 2014 and 2019.