Bombay-based architects Pronit Nath and Amisha Nath said that they had been falsely named in the Rs. 1 crore cheating case filed by actor Samir Kochhar and his friend, real estate company director Varun Bangera. They added that it was actually Samir and his friend who had both defaulted on payment for their two flats. Varun Bangera is actress Karishma Tanna’s husband.
Samir and Varun had on November 21 filed a complaint with the Andheri (Bombay) police alleging that the architects had duped them of Rs. 1 crore paid as total token amount for one flat each booked in the under-construction building at Bandra West in Bombay. The Naths said that the two of them had failed to make timely payments (after Rs. 58.50 lakh received from Samir Kochhar and Rs. 44.70 lakh, from Varun Bangera) as per the memorandum of understanding signed by them, which was rendered null and void due to default and non-payment. Kochhar had booked a flat on the third floor while Bangera had booked one on the fourth floor in the upcoming four-storey building.
Nath said, the duo lied to the police that they (Naths) had sold the disputed flats to one Sachet Pandey but the fact was that they had sold a flat on the first floor to Pandey and that it was legally registered in the registrar’s office. They alleged that Samir and Varun were trying to turn this into a criminal case while this was actually an ongoing civil case in the Bombay high court. The Naths further said that the disputed flats had not been sold yet as they were under litigation.