Hyderabad: How Jayathri Infra’s Kakarla Srinivas cheated homebuyers and gobbled up Rs 700 Cr

Hyderabad: Ch Kesav Rao (name changed), a retired employee was one among the 60 customers who were duped by the Jayathri Infrastructures Private Limited in a pre-launch offer scam at ‘Jaya’s Platinum Project’ in Bachupally.

His son Ch Kiran told NewsMeter that his father came across an advertisement regarding one of the ventures Jaya’s Platinum at Bachupally. The company is led by Kakarla Srinivas, a native of Andhra Pradesh.

“In June 2021, my father approached the company to purchase a 1,735 sq. ft triple bedroom flat in their venture at Bachupally. The builder quoted around Rs 70 lakh for the flat. My father paid Rs 10 lakh to book the flat and the builder promised to hand over the flat by December 2022. The same was mentioned in an agreement given to us after the registration of the flat in February 2022, “ Kiran said.

Venture lacking RERA approval

Kiran said at the time of booking the flat, the builder informed the customers that the venture had only approval from the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) but not from the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) as he purchased the land from Shiva Sai constructions.

“Due to this, we have stopped paying the remaining amount of Rs 60 lakh to the builder. After a few days, the builder showed us a slip seeking approval from RERA for the venture. Trusting him, we paid another Rs 40 lakh to the company. In November 2021, the venture got approval from the RERA and the construction works progressed rapidly. The builder had registered as many as 51 flats out of a total of 60. While the nine flats he mortgaged to the HMDA for security purposes,” Kiran said.

Builder involved in fraudulent business

Kiran said that due to various reasons, the construction activity progressed at a snail’s pace for a few months. Upon knowing the reason, the customers like his father came to know that the builder was involved in a fraud and is a known offender with a history of fraudulent businesses in Andhra Pradesh. He established Jayatri Infrastructure Private Limited in Hyderabad to attract customers with fake pre-launch offers at seemingly affordable prices.

“Like my father, many of them, especially from the middle-class people with a dream of owning a home, invested and paid the full amount to own a flat in ‘Jaya’s Platinum Project’ only to discover later that they had fallen victim to a scam. Srinivas absconded with the funds, and his fraud came to light, leading to multiple police cases. He was arrested in February 2023 and detained in Kandi Jail for six months,” Kiran said.

During this period, several of his fraudulent activities were exposed, including collecting money under fake pre-launch offers for flats, promising returns from rental spaces in metro stalls, taking large sums from people with the promise of high interest rates, selling fake farmland, and resort plots, running multiple sham companies, including a granite business, supermarket, electric two-wheelers, and a fake foundation called Jaya Foundation for tax evasion. In total, he defrauded around Rs 600-700 crores, and many of us are now left in a dire situation, he said.

Kiran also said that in August 2023, the builder was released from jail and then released a video statement in which he stated that false cases were booked against him which is the reason for the delay in the completion of his ongoing projects. “My father and other customers met the builder and asked him to complete the ongoing construction works in the venture. In return, he gave a cheque of Rs 10 lakh to the contractor to resume the work and also promised to sell his other properties to complete the ongoing project. From August 2023, he was absconding and there is no communication about him as of now,” he said.

RERA imposes Rs 50 lakh fine on builder

With no option left, all the flat owners approached TG RERA in September 2023. After the series of hearings, the RERA imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on the builder for cheating the people in the name of pre-launch offers. In the final hearing, the RERA also concluded that since they were unable to trace the defaulter they suggested the customers pool additional funds to complete the construction on their own. Apart from that, the RERA also sent an engineering team to inspect the ongoing constructions in the venture.

The engineering team after inspection submitted a detailed analysis report in which they mentioned that 66 percent of the works in the venture are completed and estimated that Rs 7.2 crore is required for the completion of the project. The RERA also issued an interim order under Section 8 (Ownership Rights will be transferred to the customers if the builder cheated them) and suggested forming an association with other buyers in the project.

Kiran further said that after the formation of Telangana, for the first time, RERA issued an interim order under Section 8 considering the plight of the customers of Jaya’s Platinum Project'. “After purchasing flats for Rs 70 lakh, we are now being forced to invest an additional Rs 15 lakh each to finish the project. We’ve accepted this difficult reality and requested TG RERA to transfer ownership of the building to our owner association. However, the process, which involves TG MA & UD, has been dragging on for over 95 days from April 2024 with no resolution in sight,” he said.

Kiran said that the RERA had transferred their case file to the Principal Secretary (MA&UD) for his approval to transfer the ownership rights to the customers. “We are unaware who should approve our file of ownership transfer, whether it is the Principal Secretary or Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy because he was holding the portfolio in the state,” he said.

No response in Prajavani

Recently, a few flat owners in the project also filed a complaint with the ‘Prajavani’, a grievance redressal program. However, there was no proper response from them. “We are appealing to the MA&UD department and the chief minister to consider our case and issue ownership transfer rights to the customers of the project and do justice to us in the case,“ Kiran said.