Harassed land owner seeks police help against Odisha builder
Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Nov 25:
Harassed and cheated by a builder for years, an elderly couple in the Odisha capital has lodged an FIR against him with the Laxmisagar police station charging him with fraud, issuing threats and causing huge financial losses to them.
Although the Laxmisagar police accepted the FIR against the builder on November 18, no action was taken against the accused so far, thanks to his ‘special rapport’ with a senior police officer.
The couple then chose to draw the attention of the twin city police commissioner Dr RP Sharma on Sunday. Dr Sharma reportedly assured them of quick action.
According to reports, Pravakar Mishra and Bibhabati Mishra, who own a plot measuring 0.396 acre in Laxmisagar area, had given the general power of attorney to one Suvendu Kumar Das, proprietor of Shree Laxmi Estate and Construction in December 2008 to develop the plot and build an apartment. The builder had then given them an assurance that the project would be completed within two years and also that they would get eight flats as the owner of the land.
“The builder told us that the apartment would be one of its kind in Bhubaneswar and managed to persuade us to hand over all documents and papers relating to the plot. Once he got hold of the documents, he was a changed person. He went on killing time under one pretext or the other and made unnecessary delay in getting approval for the project, ” said Biswajit Mishra, son of the plot owner.
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Biswajit said the builder, who has a ‘special rapport’ with some senior police officials, lodged some false cases blaming the plot owner for non-cooperation and tried to justify the inordinate delay in construction work.
After persistent demands for early completion of the project, the builder Suvendu Das entered into a fresh agreement with the Mishras in 2013 wherein he assured to handover eight furnished flats within two months from the date of execution of the agreement failing which he would pay penalty as per the prevailing market rate to the land owners till the flats were finally handed over.
” We soon realised the builder had taken us for a ride. Neither the flats nor the penalty was given to us. He had given us a cheque for Rs 2 lakh on 25 January this year but when we wanted to encash it, the bank informed us that builder had asked for ‘stop payment’. This is pure cheating,” said Biswajit, adding it was mental agony that led to his father, Pravakar Mishra suffering a near fatal brain stroke that has left him paralysed for life.
” He has been using our land to his benefit and has already sold most of the poorly constructed flats without basic amenities and furnishing, thus minting money at our cost. We have incurred a financial loss of Rs 57 lakh so far and he is yet to hand over the promised flats to us. On the contrary, he has been issuing threats and filing false cases against us,” he said.
Sources said the builder has been changing his firm’s name with each new project to evade taxes and legal complications. Some senior police officials have been offering him protection and that explains why he was not taken to task even after four workers were seriously injured in a roof collapse in one of his projects in Pandara in 2013.
” We want justice and our rightful share. After the police commissioner’s assurances, the least that we expect is that the builder will be booked for fraud, causing financial losses to the tune of Rs 57 lakh and issuing threats to us,” Biswajit Mishra said.
Take strong action as soon as possible.give an exemplary punishment to the builder.so that no one will harass innocent people like biswajith mishra and pravakar mishra.
It’s a really very bad thing,if police only doing like this means ,to whom we believe or to whom we ask for our justice…take action fast and give punishment to the builder…donot underestimate the power of a common man.
This is sheer disgusting and irresponsible behavior of our police department specially in the regime of such an honest chief minister Mr. Navin Pattanaik. How can the law even accept such nuisance against elderly people like this? Dont have any ill-will against builders as such, but these r the kind of people who have made the public believe that ‘builders are cheaters’…immediate action must be taken against him to save the goodwill of other builders in the market…
This is such a shame on the Police department. Trust on the builders are in a toss looking at such a situation. 6 years is no way a short span of time to complete a building construction. I hope there is some taken action taken on the builder on this asap by the appropriate authorities and help the victim in getting the justice.
Thanks to the police commissioner of the twin city for his initiative. or else police in our state project a very poor picture as it happened with the elderly couple. In fact builders are a separate breed who need shock treatment.
These days stories of builder’s harassment in Odisha are making headlines every alternate da. But the most unfortunate part is that senior citizens like MISHRAS being harrased to such an extent is quite shocking.I hope proper and immediate action ll be taken against the erring builder by police and justice will prevail.
It’s cear that the intention of the builder is nothing but LAND GRABBING.
Stringent Action MUST be taken by the Police.