Chennai: The Metrozone project in Koyambedu has joined the long list of projects under the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) scanner for suspected violation of the subvention scheme and cheating of homebuyers by the bank-developer nexus.The economic offences wing of the CBI, Delhi, has registered a case against Ozone Projects Pvt Ltd, the developer of Metrozone, its promoters, directors, as well as unknown officials of Axis Bank Ltd and Axis Finance Ltd, on charges of fraud and corruption as per the directions of the Supreme Court.According to the FIR, the directors of Ozone Projects Pvt Ltd, which is currently under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP), entered into a criminal conspiracy with the banks and financial institutions to avail themselves of entire home loans in the names of prospective homebuyers in violation of RBI and National Housing Bank regulations and defaulted on the pre-EMIs in violation of the subvention schemes of the tripartite agreements. As per the pre-EMI scheme, the developer should pay the EMI till possession of the property, but the developer allegedly failed to do so, resulting in financial turmoil for those who bought flats in the project.Ozone Projects Pvt Ltd launched the Metrozone project in 2015 and advertised that the project would be equipped with world-class amenities and infrastructure and it would be completed in a time-bound manner. However, the flats were allotted from 2021 onwards with a promise that possession would be delivered in 2024.The homebuyers approached the court, and their petition was included in the batch of similar petitions alleging a bank-developer nexus heard by the Supreme Court. In March, SC ordered the CBI to register cases in connection with 20 petitions in which the agency has already been conducting inquiries and ordered it to take up the remaining 25 cases for investigation without preliminary inquiry.The court also ordered that the CBI can take assistance from the respective state police to assist in the investigation and mentioned that the latter is obliged to the court’s order. Apart from the Chennai project, CBI has also registered cases against the Ozone group in connection with two other projects in Bengaluru.
