The Economic Offences Wing today said close to 20,000 prospective buyers seem to have registered in Maple Group's controversial project which promised one-bedroom flats for Rs five lakh, a day after a case of cheating was registered against senior executives of the firm.
The EOW appealed people, who have registered with the housing project by believing in "misleading" advertisements, to come forward and lodge their grievances with the agency.
The case of cheating and criminal conspiracy against Maple Group's CMD Sachin Agarwal, MD Naven Agarwal, Sales Manager Priyanka Agarwal and other office staff lodged by police yesterday has been transferred to EOW.
"Prima-facie, approximately 20,000 prospective buyers have registered in the housing project and around Rs 6 lakh were found deposited in one of the accounts of Maple Group, which could have been deposited through online payments by people," said Deepak Sakore, Deputy Commissioner of Police (EOW), who is monitoring the probe.
Appealing to the people who have registered and paid non-refundable amount over Rs 1145 in the low-cost housing project, to come forward, Sakore said, "We will help them to get their money back."
To a query when the accused will be arrested, he said notices have been issued to them to be present for inquiry.
"We are in the process of scrutinising the documents and trying to ascertain the exact number of buyers, who have registered in the scheme. We have also made sure there will not be any registration henceforth," the officer said.
Maple Group had recently published advertisements to promote its scheme promising a one-bedroom, hall, kitchen (1 BHK) flat for just Rs 5,00,000 on the outskirts of city.
The developers carried pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Pune Guardian Minister Girish Bapat in newspaper advertisements, apparently to "mislead" people into believing the project, titled 'Maharashtra Housing Day', was a part of 'Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana'.
The government has already clarified the project was not linked in any manner with the schemes of the Central or state government and directed the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) to take legal and criminal action in this regard.
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Police have sealed Maple Group's bank account prohibiting officials of the builder firm from carrying out any transactions.
Meanwhile, breaking its silence on the issue for first time, Maple Group today said they have already started refunding the fees, collected from the prospective buyers and expressed their "regrets" over the confusion regarding 'Maharashtra Housing Day' advertisements.
"We express sincere and deepest apologies to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Guardian Minister of Pune Girish Bapat and applicants for any harm/inconvenience caused to them due the wrong perception caused by the advertisement and if there are some inadvertent mistakes we are willing to take necessary corrective action," the company stated in the release.
It clarified that the advertisement was an initiative of Maple Shelters in terms of branding and not a government scheme.
"A declaration to the effect that this is not a government scheme was given just below the signature of the applicant in the application form so that it is easily noticeable," the company stated.
The developer further said that Maple was already a leader in affordable housing and when 'Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana' (PMAY) was launched in 2015, they wanted to bring to the attention of customers that such a beneficial scheme has been introduced by the government and hence the said advertisement was issued.
The group said that they are issuing the release and advertisements across media to reconfirm that "the projects are being developed by Maple Group only and the benefits of CLSS scheme can be availed directly from financial institutions by eligible beneficiaries".
