Popular television actor, Gautam Rode, known for his roles in shows like Saraswatichandra,  Maha Kumbh: Ek Rahasaya and Suryaputra Karn, has found himself in a spot of bother. The handsome hunk usually avoids bad spots like plague, but now finds himself at the receiving end of a land scam. He has accused a Goregaon-based builder of duping him of over Rs 2 crore.

As per reports, the incident happened in May 2016 when Rode booked a flat in Ariisto Sommet, Goregaon through a builder called Atithi Narendra Patel. He has been paying monthly instalments of Rs 5 lakhs, after giving a booking about of Rs 1.5 crore. Rode was promised the flat would be ready for possession by December 2018, which is just a few months ahead. However, there is no chance of that happening as the construction of the building has not been started till now, despite many chasers by Rode.

Frustrated, Gautam Rode has issued a statement to media that narrates his woes. he wrote, "I paid him (the builder) a booking amount of Rs 1.5 crore as asked by him and a monthly instalment of 5 lakhs was set for every month, which I paid till March 2017. This can be confirmed by my bank statement. I gave him a total amount of Rs 2 crores 11 lakhs, 95 thousand including tax to the government in the name of Ashvi developers, where Atithi Narendra Patel was the main director and owner of the company. The construction of the building, however, stopped in October 2016 but I kept paying the instalments till March 2017, hoping for it to start as promised."

"In this time I kept asking for the allotment letter without which I couldn’t register the flat. The first time I got anything besides a booking form from Ashvi Developers was a schedule sheet that was sent to me on email after 10 months of having booked the flat, dated 20th March 2017 in which random slab rates were written which were never discussed and were not part of our deal. This can be testified by Nihar and Siddarth (Common brokers- Pan Properties).

The first time I got an allotment letter was in April 2017, but it was dated wrongly and there was no mention of Rs 55 lakhs that I paid to him in instalments and again, the slab rates mentioned on this one were different from the ones sent on the email earlier. I have a hard copy of it."

"In April 2017 itself, after my repeated inquiries as to when the construction of the building will start, when I received no definite answer, I told the builder that I will not pay any more money till the construction of the building starts, to which he called the brokers Nihar and Siddarth and told them that if I didn’t want to pay any further then they would cancel my booking and refund my money. This message was delivered to me by Nihar and Siddarth to which I readily agreed as I had lost faith in the builder. Siddarth (PAN properties) has already testified in EOW about the same."

"I have saved several text messages and WhatsApp messages that I received from Atithi Narendra Patel and Dhrupad Jhaveri (Sales head of Ashvi developers and Atithi Narendra Patel’s brother in law) , in which Atithi Narendra Patel has written that I am in his first list of payments and he has thanked me for understanding his situation and keeping patience, and he will close the deal at the earliest. But he never kept his word."

"After patiently waiting for more than a year when I did not get any positive reply about either the construction of the building or on the return of my money I went to the Economic Offences Wing and lodged an FIR against the builder. The construction of the building ( Aristo Sommet, Goregaon West) has still not started. I’ve suffered a lot, but I have full faith in the judicial system and am positive that I will get justice."

We also hope that Gautam Rode gets justice too and the matter gets solved at the earliest.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 17, 2018 08:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).