Background
details of Case pertaining to myself ( I K
Chhugani )
Am a Mechanical
Engineer, 57 yrs of age, considered as the pioneer of
the Yellow Pages Industry in India. Pioneered the
concept in 1984 by publishing SELPAGES.
At the peak
my Company Sellaids Publications I Ltd., of
which I continued to be the Managing Director
till 2004 (promoter shareholding was sold in
2004), employed over 400 people, mostly
graduates or post graduates in Mumbai, Pune,
Calcutta, Guwahati and Bangalore.
My business was
respectable and high profile, which brought
me also in touch with leading Police
officials like, Police Commissioners, Soman,
R D Tyagi and Dr P S Pasricha, who incidently
is now the Director General of Police,
Maharastra.
Competition
from the Tata Group , in the form of Tata
Yellow Pages, was our undoing, I fought the
competition fiercely and lost ... after
commiting a mistake of allowing credit to
boost sagging sales.
My financial
Problems began in 2001/2002. Finally I was compelled
to sell off my office, and even my home at 201/202,
Pinky Panorama. In the 1st week of June 2004, I
contracted to sell my flat on the 2nd floor, with
condition that the possession will be given by 30th
September 2004, as we had fixed my Daughters wedding
on 21st August 04.
On 23rd June 04 The
PNB officers came to attach the flat 502 in our
Building, they met me & could not locate 502, I
helped them out & explained that 501/502 was a
composite flat with one door. Also I was told by them
that they would sell the flat within months.
At that time, I was
a managing committee member and my wife was the
treasurer of the Society, Mr. Rohira was the
Chairman, Mr. Raj Basantani was the secretary.
He was absconding.
I was eager to
locate Bharat Overseas Bank Ltd, who I was told, had
the mortgage for 501, sincein the garage
of flat 501 wasstaying a Gunman, kept
specifically for intimidating the Society Management
commitee, into transfering the Flat no 701, which was
sold by Power Of Attorney holder of Raj Basantani,
after he absconded.
The Khar Police had
expressed their inability to do anything, as the man
had a license for the gun, and we were told that to
evict him from the building. the society will
have to approch a court as it would be a civil
matter.(This same Khar Police later arrested
me, though the matter was clearly civil and the
persons if any were to be arrested, were the Bank
Officers.)
With PNB help. I
located Bharat Overseas Bank Ltd., Chief Manager, Mr
Mihir Datta, who was delighted to meet me & said
I was a God send person for him. I requested Mr.
Datta, to take possesion of 501 along with Garage, so
the Gunman gets evicted. But he was a very scared
person, who needed immense persuasion, from me to
take possession.
Finally, he came to
take possession on 28/7/04, he only pasted the notice
on the flat 501 door and was interested in doing the
same for the garage, but I and other Society members
insisted on the Gunman to take his bag & move
out, we gave a lock to Mr Datta, to put on the
garage.
That night the
Gunman and Basantanis driver, came around 11 pm, to
break open the Garage lock, which I stopped along
with Mr. Rohira, the Chairman. After about 30
minutes, I started getting threatening calls from
Dubai, saying I will not be allowed to live more than
a week. On the morning of 29th July 04, I registered
a NC at Khar Police Station at 9:45 am (NC 1533/04),
against Suresh Basantani and Raj Basantani... (Mr
Suresh Basantani runs a company in Dubai, Talisman
General Trading and is supposed to be close to the
underworld).
The Banks needed a
lot of help and understanding, both did not know how
much area was 501 & 502. They squabled, PNB
insisting on 50% share, whereas BOBL insisted
rightly, with help from me, 501 is 641 sq ft and 502
is 398 sq.ft. I was literally an arbitrator between 2
Banks.
Punjab
National Bank Ltd., had (sanctioned 11.5 Cr) advanced
over Rs 7 Crores against the 398 sq.ft flat no 502
and Bharat Overseas Bank Ltd., had advanced Rs 4
Crores (sanctioned 5 Cr) against the 641 sq.ft flat
no 501. Normal people like me and you, would not get
more than Rs 20 lakhs, against such properties.
Both banks requested
me to allow their valuers to look thru my flat
201/202 as 501/502 was identical. I allowed
them to do that. I already had expressed my interest
in buying 501/502 from them, I felt I will get these
at a reasonable price, considering the complications.
It was September
2004 now and still I did not know, when the Banks
will be able to sell, even if my bid is the highest.
I pursued both the Banks.
Finally Mr Datta
expressed, that if I could help them at the Chief
Metropolitan Magistrates Court to get physical
possession, they will sell the flat within 15 days to
the highest bidder. Thereafter it is your luck, they
said.
So I followed up
with the Registrar at Chief Metropolitan Magistrates
Court and explained again the problem of 2 flats
having a single door, explaining how every flat was
was like that in our building. Finally on 12th
October 04, Both banks got physical possession,
through the Chief Metropolitan Magistrates court, I
am recorded as a witness, in the panchnama.
I had already given
possession of my flat on 30th September 04, but the
buyer allowed us to continue to live in the flat,
while part of the flat was occupied by them. I was
desperate now, and promised the buyer, I will move my
furniture out on Dassera day 22nd October 04.
I followed both
Banks on a daily basis, on 21st October 05, both
Banks formed a Jt committee and considered 4 offers,
of which mine was the highest, I understand now from
Court records.
However a decision
was taken by the Committee to meet again on 28th
October 04, as per the rules, the valuation had to be
done again after getting physical possession. The
earlier valuation done by seeing my 2nd floor flat
would not do. Valuation was again done on 23rd
October 2004.
The Committee met
again on 28th October, but again no decision was
taken. The next date was 25th November, I was told
... (became aware later that Mr Datta was keen to see
that a representative of the absconder got the flat)
On 30th October 04,
I got my furniture packed and sent for storage to
Bulwark Warehousing and me and my family moved in to
ABs Service Apartments, at Bandra. For 12 days
we stayed there, as we were paying Rs 5,500 per
day...Afterwards we got a small apartment (one room
kithchen flat), which had actually been converted
into an office, to stay. In this Flat we stayed till
26th Feb 05. All this time we ate out in restaurants,
as the flat no more had a proper kitchen.
All along, the
Banks, kept saying it will take only 1 week more.
Finally on 15th January 05 they said we will call for
tenders, which they did. I bid with a Earnest Money
deposit of Rs 5 lakhs on 15th February 05, and was
the only bidder.
Their tender terms
were, "Full Payment within 1 week".
Tenders were opened on 18th February 05 and full
payment was made by us on 25th February 05. (Opening of Tenders to
Receiving Key)
What
suddenly caused all the upheaval was, initially the
Rs 5 lakhs bribe demand from Mr.Mihir Datta of
Bharat Overseas Bank Ltd., (which I refused to pay)
and later the supposedly sealing of the flat
by the MPID court, which was to be implemented by
the EOW of Mumbai Police on 8th february 2005.
On 30th January 06, the MPID
court discharged me and came to the conclusion that there
was no order to seal the flat,
no evidence to show that the flat was sealed and
noted that the banks had concealed many facts before
the court ... 2 applications have been filed by me
for action against the 4 bank managers and one police
officer for perjury and tampering with court records
... pending.
On 15th February 2006, the
high court stayed all proceedings, at Khar Police
station, but in contempt of HC order, chargesheet was
filed on 3rd May 2006 by Inspector Vijay Dhatrak ...
explanation received through RTI ... Officer was
too busy with other work, so did not read high court
order. Chargesheet filed by mistake.. This Dhatrak is
now suspended in false Chturvedi case.
Now I am almost 60 ... this
page was initially written in April 2005.
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