Shapoorji Pallonji — fund diversion by builders m/s bshdpl of sukhobristi project at new town, kolkata

Address:	new town, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700135
Website:	www.shapoorjipallonji.com

The Managing Director
HDFC Bank Ltd.
Bank House, Shivsagar Estate,
Dr Annie Besant Road,
Worli, Mumbai - 400018.

Fund diversion by builders M/s BSHDPL of “Sukhobristi” project at New Town, Kolkata

Sirs,

M/s Bengal Shapoorji Housing Development Pvt. Ltd. (subsidiary of Shapoorji Pallonji Co Ltd) in 2007 had been allotted 150 acres of land at AA-III, New Town, Kolkata by West Bengal Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd for construction of mass housing project. As per agreement with WBHIDCO, M/s BSHDPL was supposed to build around 20, 000 flats in 9 phases. HDFC Bank had entered into tie-up arrangement with M/s BSHDPL for sanction of housing loan to the apartment allotees.

But even after 12 years since start of the project, so far M/s BSHDPL has been able to complete only the first 4 phases and complete handover of apartments to the allotees of first 4 phases only. All kinds of construction works are stalled for over a year now. They have even shifted all kinds of construction equipments from the site. A single visit to the site will reveal the true picture. Now the “Sukhobristi” project has turned into a fraudulent scheme by M/s BSHDPL, who are deceiving gullible public with misleading advertisements of lottery schemes for flat distribution. Actually they are diverting funds of home loan borrowers to overseas bank accounts and tax havens.

Soon this Sapoorji group will be in the news for all the wrong reasons. “Sukhobristi” project and Sapoorji real estate will be added to the list of fraudulent builders like Unitech, DHFL, Amprapali etc. Several court cases have been filed in the consumer forum for delay in handover of apartments. Few of the home loans have already turned “NPA” at other banks. Local officials of M/s BSHDPL like Mr Rajnikant Chaturvedi(@[protected]) and Mr Rana Gupta(@[protected]) are not traceable over last few months. Moreover this M/s BSHDPL have even altered the clauses of the Tripartite Agreement to suit their needs without any knowledge of the bank or borrowers. Registration of sale deed is pending for months, even though M/s BSHDPL has already taken the amounts intended for stamp duty and other registration related expenses. It has been revealed that M/s BSHDPL has not submitted the amounts collected for the purpose to the concerned registration office at Rajarhat, North 24Parganas. Due to all these malpractices SBI has already stopped further disbursement of installments for this project. In these circumstances HDFC bank is also expected to act ethically and not haunt lower and middle-class home loan borrowers for repayment of home loan dues of apartments, whose handover are long overdue, due to no fault of the borrowers.

However HDFC bank is still releasing home loan installments to this builder without any verification of the actual construction work undertaken. In some instances this M/s BSHDPL have even claimed multiple installments in a single month, contrary to the agreed upon terms & conditions of disbursement of installments after verification of floor-wise constructions of the allotted buildings.

Please initiate measures immediately for physical verification of the construction site and stop release of any further funds till completion of actual handover of apartments of phases whose delivery deadlines are already over. More importantly seek legal recourse against this defaulting builder in case normalcy of the construction process is not restored soon to protect the interests of the bank and its borrowers.

Thanks & Regards,
Sunil Yadav
AA-III, New Town
Kolkata-700135.

Copy for information and necessary action:-

1. The Banking Ombudsman
RBI Kolkata & Mumbai.

2. The A.D.S.R. Rajarhat,
Revenue Dept, Govt of WB.

3. Head-Retail Loans, ICICI Bank