Hyderabad: The Hyderabad City Police arrested a real estate agent and the managing director, B Laxminarayana, of Sahiti Infratec Ventures India Pvt. Ltd., after a group of customers who made residential apartment reservations filed a complaint at the Central Crime Station.
The company has so far allegedly scammed over 2,500 consumers out of a total of Rs 900 crore in various projects put together in the city.
To entice customers, the infra company allegedly used pre-launch offer schemes for 38-floor multi-story flats with double or triple bedrooms and sizes ranging from 1200 to 1700 square feet. Without the required HMDA and GHMC approvals, Sahiti’s Sarvani Elite in Ameenpur Village opened for business and collected approximately Rs 539 crore from more than 1,700 clients.
While the victims insisted on receiving their money back, the project never materialized. The real estate agent also provided checks for the calculated sum, promising to reimburse the money with an interest rate of 15% to 18% annually. However, he broke his pledge.
Sahiti Infratech Ventures Pvt. Ltd. has begun other projects in the region of Hyderabad. In addition to this project of Sahiti’s Sarvani Elite, and according to the police, Sahiti Infratech has so far scammed over 2,500 consumers out of a total of Rs 900 crore. The claims were denied by the business’s MD.
“The business put off getting the necessary permits, land acquisition or initiating the project physically beginning in late February or early March 2021. The refund process was delayed and has not been honoured to date,” the buyers claimed.
They also reported that despite depositing a sizable sum of money with the business, it continued to miss deadlines for project fulfilment and refunds. Out of about 3800 residential apartments, almost 1500 have been sold as part of a pre-launch promotion, bringing in about Rs 400 crore in revenue. Nearly 600 clients have been cancelled, and the corporation claims to have reimbursed 150 of them; however, there may still be up to Rs 150 crore in unpaid refunds.
Over 250 clients have allegedly not received refund checks, according to the complainants. However, Sahiti Infratec’s managing director, Dr B Lakshmi Narayana, denied the complainants’ allegations. “These are unfounded claims. An action plan has been created to move the initiatives forward. We will handle all of the registrations, and those who need a refund will receive one. I assure you that everything will go well on behalf of my partners,” he stated.
He said that an international partnership between the business and another will be revealed on August 6, but the company is being painted in a negative light as a result of the dissatisfaction some of the customers have caused, which may cause the MNCs to hesitate. “So I want everyone to stay calm, and their complaints will be addressed,” he added.
