Families protest, allege cheating by builder

The protest was held in front of the house of K M Vidhyasagar, who headed the Aalayam project-part of Manju Groups, which had promised to build 140 villas at Moulivakkam. The protesting families demanded to see Vidhyasagar but the police controlled the protesters resulting in tense moments.  Speaking to DTNext, Sriramakrishnan, a resident of Perungalathur, said that in 2013 many families had signed an agreement with Manju Group for constructing villas and semi villas at a cost ranging between Rs 65 lakh to Rs 1.25 crore. 

The agreement was that the villas would be completed the following year. ‘We believed that the project would be completed in time and invested all our money. I had signed up for a villa worth Rs 90 lakh, and I made payments as per the agreement, but the project did not take off. Only 40 per cent of the construction has been finished and the owner declined to meet us. 

We found out that instead of focusing on this project he was investing in others, and has a lot of outstanding dues to contractors,’ he said. ‘This morning we arrived at 8.30 am and the police was already present at the spot. From Samco hotel, we were not allowed to go any further as the policemen pushed us away’.  

Another protester, Vairamuthu lives in a rented house in Moulivakkam now as his dream house that was supposed to come up one and a half kilometres away never did. He is now left with neither money nor a home and is at crossroads. ‘Each family here is facing a loss of anywhere between Rs 25 lakh to Rs 65 lakh. We are asking the builder to return the money but they do not have an answer. They are even declining to meet us and offer an explanation,’ Vairamuthu said. 

According to the protesters, the builder had promised them independent homes with common amenities such as a swimming pool, club house and so on. On Sunday, they claim that the police were also acting on behalf of the builder and the group of investors, which included women and children, were made to stand in a corner at Eldams Road when they tried to go to Vidhyasagar’s home. “The police told us that it would affect his personal life; it looked as the police was giving him security,” Vairamuthu said. 

When contacted, the Teynampet police said that the builder’s house was located in a residential layout and it was for the safety of occupants in neighbouring houses that they had to prevent the protest.  The CEO of the company T S Davay, said that the protest was held only due to personal enmity of Vairamuthu who instigated others join in.  He said that project was going on well and was not facing any problems.  It was being completed in phases from 2013, however, in 2016, a Court judgement was passed preventing any further registration of land which affected the work for a few months.