Former Cricket India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni appears in a list of buyers who have not claimed their flats in the beleaguered housing projects by the Amrapali Group in Noida and Greater Noida. The name of Dhoni appears in the list of 1800 ‘benami’ flat owners in the projects in Noida, who have not claimed their properties yet. In total, there are 9538 flats in the Amrapali projects that have not been claimed by their owners.
Dhoni’s name appears at number 14 in the list for the project named Saphire Phase 1, and there are two penthouses (C-P5 and P6) at the Amrapali project located at Noida sector 45. However, the name has been spelt as Mahendra Singh Doni in the list published by the Supreme Court in newspapers.
The list was published on pages 8 and 9 of the Times of India today, and Dhoni’s name (apparently misspelt as Doni), appeared on the second page of the list. It asks those who have been named in the list to update their information on the Office of Receiver’s website and make any pending payments if they are willing to take possession of the flats after their completion.
The authorities are releasing the name of all the flat owners who have not claimed the flats yet, and they have been given 15 days to claim their flats. Those who fail to do so, their allotments will be cancelled and their flats will be resold in the market by the Court receiver. The rest of the list will be published next week. Last month, the receiver had submitted a list of 9538 flats in the projects of the Amrapali Group not claimed by their buyers yet. Although these people had paid the flat booking amount, they have not made any subsequent payment and didn’t appear for verification for registration of the flats in their names.
Such buyers will have to claim their flats by making the outstanding payments after their names are published in the lists. If they fail to do so within 15 days, their flats will be re-sold, and the money collected through such sale will be used to complete the stalled projects. the construction will be carried by the state-run National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) under the monitoring of a court-appointed committee.
Name of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who has been named as the mentor of the Indian team for T20 world cup, has been associated with the controversial housing project for several years. He had endorsed the projects developed by the Amrapali Group as a brand ambassador, but later the real estate developer failed to complete its projects. The company was accused of committing fraud by taking money paid by tens of thousands of home buyers and of cheating by not completing housing projects for which the company had accepted payments. The Supreme Court had termed it as a “first degree crime”.
Buyers of the project had accused Dhoni of misleading them by endorsing the company for six years. He and his wife were accused of conspiring with the Amrapali Group and duping them of crores of rupees.
An Audit report submitted at the Supreme Court had even alleged that companies linked to the cricketer and his wife Sakshi Dhoni were among those used by the Amrapali Group to illegally divert the funds collected from buyers. However, Dhoni had denied these allegations.
After endorsing the company for 6 years in advertisements, Dhoni had resigned as the brand ambassador of the company in 2019, after homebuyers in the project started to slam him on social media for his association with the company. Soon after that, he had moved the Supreme Court against the company to get his unpaid dues amounting to Rs 40 crore towards the endorsement deal.
In 2016, the Amrapali Group had announced that they were gifting each member of the Indian Cricket Team with an exquisitely designed independent villa at its Amrapali Dream Valley Project at Noida Extension worth Rs 9 crore after India’s victory in the World Cup in 2011. While Dhoni was reportedly presented with a grand villa covering 2,900 sq ft worth Rs 1 crore, the other team members were gifted villas worth Rs 55 lakh each covering an area of 1690 sq ft.
At present, it is not known whether the properties listed against Dhoni are the same ones ‘gifted’ by the company after the 2016 World Cup win, or whether they were purchased by the cricketer or given to him as part of the endorsement deal.
Amrapali Group had started around 40 housing development projects between 2010 and 2016 in the Delhi NCR region, and had sold around 45000 flats in those projects.
