The Economic Offences Wing, Unit II, has registered a case with the Vashi police against Nalin Shah, director of Shah Group, for cheating a Seawood-based couple of ₹1.79 crore.
Riyazuddin Shaikh and his wife, Hina, had booked two shop spaces in Mr. Shah’s project in Kharghar in 2012 and were promised possession by 2013.
“Mr Shah took bookings for a project which had not received permission for construction. As of now, only one couple has approached us with a complaint. We believe there could be more who were cheated,” senior police inspector Raju Sonawane, EOW, Unit II, said.
Mr. Shaikh, a maintenance engineer with an oil and gas company in Nigeria, saw an advertisement for the project Shah Kingdom at Sector 20, Kharghar, on a hoarding in April 2012. Mr. Shaikh met Mr. Shah at his office at Arenja Corner in Vashi, to buy shop number 62. In 2016, while the construction was still on, Ms. Shaikh invested in shop number 54. They paid ₹1.24 crore for the first shop, and ₹65 lakh for the second.
Later, the couple learnt that the land on which the project was being constructed was part of a legal suit, and Mr. Shah had not received any permission for the construction.
“We are investigating the case further, and have not made any arrests as of now,” Mr. Sonawane said.
