Gurugram: Orris Infrastructure accuses builder of cheating, Godrej Air buyers in a fix

GURUGRAM: More trouble is in store for around 500 homebuyers and investors of the Godrej
Air residential project in Sector 85 with the landowner, Orris Infrastructure, filing a complaint with
the economic offence wing (EOW) of Gurgaon police against the developer, Godrej Properties,
accusing it of cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy.
In December last year, the court of an additional district judge had ordered to freeze 16 bank
accounts of the residential housing project after Orris had filed a petition, alleging siphoning of
funds by Godrej Properties.
On Sunday, Deepak Khemchandani, a representative of Orris Infrastructure, accused Godrej
Properties and its senior management staff of repeated deceitful and fraudulent acts to take
over Orris’ share and make unlawful gains.
In 2016, Khemchandani alleged, Orris was developing a group housing colony on 10 acres of
land in Sector 85 when the accused made “false and manipulative projections” of high profits in
favour of Orris and influence the developer to enter into a transaction with Godrej. After that,
Orris Infrastructure and Godrej Properties entered into an agreement in 2017 for project
development where the profit ratio was decided at 62.5% and 37.5%, respectively.
As per the business plan, Godrej projected a cash flow of approximately Rs 200 crores in favour
of Orris. Godrej was granted irrevocable and exclusive development rights, rights in
allotting/selling units, receiving consideration from allottees and maintaining accounts in place of
revenue and expenses.
As per the complaint, in November 2017 Godrej reduced Orris’ share to Rs 178 crore and again
in 2019 to Rs 155 crore without sharing any valid reasons. Thereafter, in June 2022, Godrej
once again revised the business plan, further reducing Orris’ share to Rs 91 crore and
escalating the construction cost by almost Rs100 crore without sharing any data.
Khemchandani claimed that Godrej breached the trust and the terms mutually agreed upon by
the two parties by unilateral revision of business plans, non-sharing of revenue collected from
the sale of school land, commercial units and EWS units, unilateral change from ‘constructionlinked plans’ to ‘subvention plans’ and arbitrary revision in specifications, escalation in
construction costs from Rs 351 crore to Rs 450 crore. It also accused Godrej of assigning work
orders, worth more than Rs 25 crore, to third-party contractors without the consent of Orris.
“We have filed a complaint with EOW as these offences by the accused company are
punishable under sections 406, 409, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120B of IPC. Others named in the
complaint are senior management persons from Godrej Properties,” said the Orris
spokesperson.
When approached, a spokesperson for Godrej Properties said they did not receive any notice of
any complaint filed by Orris Infrastructure Private Limited. “On 15.12.2022, we received an order
passed by the court under a petition filed under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act
by Orris. We were not served with any notice in this case. Instead, the court granted an ex-parte
order without giving us an opportunity to present our case. The accounts that have been frozen
are only to the extent of 12.6%, i.e. the share of Orris in the project. We are confident of our
compliance in the matter and deny the allegations raised by Orris. We are seeking legal advice,” the spokesperson said, adding that the matter was sub-judice and they would not be able to
make detailed comments.