India News | Revenue Team with Recovery Notice Held 'hostage' by Noida Builder, Probe on

Noida, Jan 12 (PTI) An on-duty revenue department team of Gautam Buddh Nagar was allegedly held hostage and intimidated by employees of a real estate developer when it had gone to meet them to recover dues, police said on Wednesday.

Naib tehsildar Ram Krisha alleged he had gone with his team to the Sector 96 project of the Supertech Group on January 5 on the basis of a recovery notice of Rs 112 crore issued against the developer by the Uttar Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA).

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The official said the lift of an under-construction building at the site was "deliberately" stopped by the developer when the revenue department team was on the fourth floor of the building, leaving them gasping for air to breathe, according to the FIR lodged at the local Sector 39 police station.

"The lift was deliberately stopped on instructions of Supertech's director R K Arora and vice president Vikas Tyagi with an intention to kill us. The lift remained dysfunctional for one hour. We could get out of the lift after making a lot of efforts and with the help of the lift firm. We were on the verge of fainting," the revenue official alleged.

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However, the developer has denied the charges.

"The elevator had stopped working due to technical issues. However, the issue was resolved after a while and all the elevators started working," a Supertech Group spokesperson said.

Police officials said an FIR was lodged on Monday based on the complaint and six people, including the director and the vice president of the real estate group, have been booked.

The FIR has been lodged under Indian Penal Code sections 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to any person being a public servant in the discharge of his duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 342 (wrongful confinement), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy), the official said.

Further investigation in the case is underway, the police said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)