ISLAMABAD: The affectees of the multistorey Fortune Heights and Fortune Residency projects demanded the government and authorities concerned to hold the proprietor accountable for the alleged fraud in the mega real estate schemes left incomplete in E-11 sector of the federal capital.
The owner of the schemes Arshad Karim Dhedhi had abandoned the Fortune Heights project, which was next to the Khudadad Heights in E-11/4, for the past eight years since 2014, despite the layout plan (LOP) issued by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and blamed the civic agency for halting the project, said Zubair Alam an affectee of this alleged scam while talking to APP on Sunday.
Alam said the protest was staged outside Dhedhi’s house to demand him for deciding the fate of the project that had put millions of rupees at the stake of the masses.
He alleged that Dhedhi’s son (Asher) abused and pushed his guards to open fire at the protestors, whereas his wife allegedly was also provoking the guards to fire and also passed abusive remarks.
He claimed that there were over 100 First Information Reports (FIRs) registered against him in various fraud and other offences and was an alleged wanted criminal, remaining underground for the past many years.
To a question, he said Ashraf Dhedhi made huge projections and “started swindling payments” from the masses in June 2015, claiming, “He halted the development work and started claiming that CDA had stopped the project. But till 2019 he has sold the project files to many.”
Zubair Alam informed that the affectees made a group and a relevant Facebook page in a bid to apprise their woes, and to start a united effort to exert pressure on the project owner to get their grievances addressed.
While elaborating on his modus operandi to trap innocent investors, he said after some time Ashraf Dhedhi had brought a builder Shafique Butt and another contractor to develop the project, but it failed.
Dhedhi, he said, had also written letters to the investors to fill out a form and get their investments back but it all remained in limbo.
Former Parliamentary Secretary of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Sheikh Yaqub and many other ex-servicemen were among the affectees, he added.
He said as per Dhedhi’s claims he owned some 11 kanals of land for Fortune Heights but as
per the LOP, he possessed 6 kanals and 11 marlas of land where all affectees cannot be accommodated.
Zubair also claimed that a finding of Rs1-2 billion was stuck in these projects.
The Fortune Residency project was at the back of Fortune Heights and it was only on paper as one file was sold to ten people without any land or project site. These are also some 400-500 affectees who were given fake files, he added.
After the firing of guards at the protestors outside Arshad Karim Dhedhi’s house, the Kohsar Police Station has registered an FIR against Arshad Karim Dhedhi and nominated his son and wife as culprit in the application and the Police was busy in further investigation for action against the accused.
When contacted Arshad Karim Dhedhi on his personal phone number and WhatsApp he remained unavailable for his version and did not reply to any queries sent through text messages.
