Housing society officials ‘put clamp on bike, damaged CCTV’

The bike was locked with a metal clamp, similar to those used by traffic police

A real estate broker in Powai lodged a police complaint, alleging that members of a housing society’s managing committee locked his employee’s motorcycle using a metal clamp, similar to those used by traffic police, and damaged his CCTV cameras. Committee officials, however, accused the resident, Sanjeevkumar Jha, of illegal parking and running a commercial venture by sub-letting apartments in the building. Trouble has been brewing for some time between a group of residents at Sapphire Lakeside in Powai and the society’s managing committee, with both parties trading allegations.

Things came to a head on March 1, when Jha found his employee’s motorcycle locked with a yellow metal clamp, usually used by traffic police to detain illegally parked vehicles. Jha (38) is a real estate broker who has tied up with software companies to provide rented accommodation to their employees in the several dozen apartments he owns in the society.

In a complaint registered with the Powai police station on March 8, Jha accused the society’s chairman, Harish Patel, and three others of locking the motorcycle. “They could have charged me a penalty if they wanted. But, they had no right to lock the bike,” Jha said. According to Jha’s complaint, those who locked up the bike prevented him from getting the clamp removed. The complaint further stated that the next day, on March 2, Jha had found four of six CCTV cameras, which he had mounted outside his second-floor apartment in the society’s D-wing, broken.

In his complaint, Jha said he suffered damages to the tune of Rs 16,000. Powai police booked the four men with theft, wrongful restraint and common intention under the Indian Penal Code.

Anil Pophale, senior inspector at Powai police station, said police was recording the version of the four men named in Jha’s complaint. The society’s chairman, Patel, has dismissed Jha’s complaint as false. “The broker lobby is spoiling the society by sub-letting apartments for boarding and lodging of IT professionals. They charge Rs 7,000-8,000 per person and give them no fixed tenure,” Patel said.

The chairman also claimed that the society had recently passed a resolution against the parking of vehicles that don’t belong to members. “We had distributed stickers to members, but the broker refused to take them. We had removed the clamp with instructions from the police,” he said. Patel also added that numerous reminders had been sent to Jha to remove cameras, which he had installed in his personal capacity in the society’s premises.