Noida:
Two property dealers were arrested on Thursday for allegedly duping several buyers by selling them illegal and construction-wise unsafe flats in the Shahberi area of Greater Noida, police said. The arrested duo has been identified as Hirendra Kant Sharma and Ashok Goswami, both around 45 years, and residents of adjoining Ghaziabad district, they said.
On July 17, 2018, two adjoining buildings in Shahberi village had collapsed, leaving nine people, including a child and two women, dead. Probe reports by the administration and local authorities found that the building had come up illegally and without any proper approval, as did several others which mushroomed over the years in the village, less than 50 km from Delhi.
“Hirendra Kant Sharma and Ashok Goswami were arrested on Thursday from their residences in Ghaziabad. They are accused of selling illegal and unsafe flats to gullible buyers by conniving with their other associates and fraudulently making money by these sales,” a police spokesperson said. An FIR has been lodged against them at the Bisrakh police station in Greater Noida. They have been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 288 (negligence during pulling down or repairing building), 420 (fraud), 467, 468 and 471 (all related to forgery), the spokesperson said.
They have also been booked under relevant provisions of the Criminal Law Act, the official added. The number of flats sold by them or money involved in their work could not be known immediately.
Shahberi falls under the notified area of the local Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) since 1994. Government rules have barred any construction activity in the area without due clearances and approval by the GNIDA. The district police had formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) last August to probe the illegal construction cases and by January 2020, around 86 FIRs were registered and action taken against around 50 builders under the Gangsters Act, according to officials.
