The whistle-blower architect who exposed 65 illegal housing projects in Kalyan

Meet Sandeep Patil, an architect who was the first to blow the whistle on 65 real estate projects in Kalyan-Dombivli where developers had produced fake commencement certificates, a statutory approval required from Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC), to get the projects registered with MahaRERA.

Patil has also filed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition in the Bombay high court and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had in November 2022 asked him to assist in these cases.

The first illegality came to light when Patil encountered a registered sale deed of a developer on October 29, 2020, at Adivali Dhokli in Ambernath with a bogus approved plan of KDMC. “What the builder did was he prepared bogus documents of approval from KDMC, and those fabricated documents with fake stamps and signatures had an original RERA registration number,” Patil said.

KDMC’s assistant director of town planning confirmed on November 3, 2020, that the plan was not approved, and Patil immediately filed a PIL in the high court where it was registered in 2021. “This case is still pending in the court,” he said.

Patil explained the sequence of events from May 1, 2017, when the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2005, along with Maharashtra Rules, 2017, and Maharashtra Regulation, 2016, was introduced.

On July 17, 2017, Patil wrote to the then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and furnished a copy to all 288 members of the assembly and 78 members of the council, providing suggestions and pointing out loopholes in the RERA Act in case of illegal constructions.

More than 10 months later, on May 3, 2018, the state issued a government resolution to take action against illegal constructions and prepared a list of such projects to not allow registration of flats. On September 20, 2019, the state government passed a resolution stipulating that only those projects registered under the RERA Act could register for flats/apartments and shops.

It was in October 2020 that Patil learnt of a sale deed registered by a developer at Adivali Dhokli in Ambernath with a bogus approved plan of KDMC. Subsequently, Patil exposed 65 illegal projects within KDMC jurisdiction. He first went to the RERA website, checked for those projects approved under KDMC, and procured the RERA certificates and the plans passed by the corporation which were put up on the site by the clients.

“Because I am an architect, I know it is a bogus plan. I sent a list of 65 illegal projects to KDMC, and two FIRs were registered at Manpada and Ramnagar police stations on September 27, 2022, and October 3, 2022, respectively. The Thane police commissioner constituted a special investigation team to probe the cases and the ED also took up investigation. The Central agency issued me a summons in November 2022. Investigation is still on,” Patil said.

All over Maharashtra, no buying or selling of flats can take place without RERA registration but the trend picked up in Vasai-Virar where illegal constructions saw a spike and to get a RERA number, developers showed bogus approvals from the corporation.

“These developers construct four-, five-, and seven-storey illegal buildings not just in KDMC region but in Thane, Bhiwandi, Kalwa, and Vasai-Virar and show bogus approved plans only because the RERA registration number is mandatory,” Patil pointed out.

Patil said the real lacuna lies in the process of being online. “RERA officials should personally visit the site. Now there are cases where one RERA number is used for more than one building. RERA does all the work online which is leading to such illegalities. Earlier, I used to procure a RERA registration number within 15 days. But now things have changed, and RERA has become stringent,” he said.

When queried about a solution to curb illegal constructions, Patil said, “Our contention is that all permissions should be just one click away where registration for flats, a RERA number, plan approval by municipal authorities, and information whether property has to be sold/resold should be made available. All planning related documents should be linked together.”