Police in Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport detained Snehal Mantri, Director of Bengaluru-based real estate major Mantri Developers as she was attempting to fly out to Singapore on Tuesday. She was later released but not allowed to leave the country.
Snehal is also the wife of Sushil who is the Managing Director. Mantri Developers is being probed by Bengaluru police over an alleged cheating case among others.
The detention was made based on a ‘lookout notice’ that had been issued by the Union Home Ministry following a request by Bengaluru’s Cubbon Park Police Station. This after some of the complainants in the cheating case had apprehensions of the couple fleeing the country.
While Snehal was not allowed to leave the country, Cubbon Park police was informed of her detention at the Delhi airport. However, as Cubbon Park police said they don't need to take her into custody, she was released from detention.
“In total, we have eight FIRs registered against Mantri. We don’t feel the need to arrest them now. So far they are cooperating with the investigations. All these eight cases are involving the Mantri Webcity project in Hennur. Police in Delhi had contacted us asking if we wanted her custody,” B Iyanna Reddy, Inspector of Cubbon Park Police Station told TNM.
Other than the FIRs, there are multiple civil cases in various Bengaluru courts including the Karnataka High Court.
TNM has earlier reported how many customers of this Webcity project felt cheated and had started defaulting on their home loans due to non-delivery of the project. This as many of the buyers struggled to pay the EMIs apart from having to pay rent for their current residence.
In 2014, Mantri Developers had published advertisements of a scheme where buyers had the option of paying a down payment of 20% with the remaining 80% paid through a bank loan serviced by EMIs.
What lured the buyers was that Mantri promised to pay back the EMIs for the first three years before the possession of the flat as part of the agreement after receiving 20% of the cost upfront from the buyers. Moreover, buyers also had the option of choosing to sell their property at the end of three years and get double the amount invested.
As promised by Mantri, the first group of apartments were set to be delivered by mid-2015, but much to their distress, buyers allege that even till now there has been little progress in the work.
TNM could not reach Snehal Mantri for a comment.
Speaking to TNM earlier in March, Snehal had admitted that there was a delay.
“It is nothing like that the project is not getting completed. It has got a little delayed as you know everybody in the industry has got delayed due to various factors. So now we are handing over in phases, which we have already committed. And it is nothing that the delay has gone beyond. But definitely, as per RERA, we will adhere to the dates as per RERA that we have already committed. This is the only project that has got delayed, tomorrow onwards you will see that the project is going in full swing,” she had then said.
However, many customers told TNM that there was no affirmative action on ground.