Bhubaneswar, May 16: Sixteen people today lodged a complaint with the crime branch’s economic offences wing alleging that real-estate firm Hi-Tech Group were yet to provide them with flats that they had paid for.

The complaint brings fresh trouble for company chairman Tirupati Panigrahi, whom the crime branch had arrested on charges of land fraud in December 2012. He is out on conditional bail from the Supreme Court.

The aggrieved customers of Hi-Tech Estates and Promoters Pvt Ltd filed the case against Panigrahi and three other directors, Tirupati Choudhary, Madhusudan Panigrahi and Bhaskar Choudhary. The complainants alleged that though they had booked flats in Hi-Tech Heaven Apartment project at Matiapada, the company neither provided them with flats nor did they return their money.

“An agreement had been made between us and the company in 2008, and it had assured us of delivering flats in 2013.

Most of us have paid huge amounts as advance for the flats. But, the company has neither provided flats nor retuned our money. The project consisting of 1,100 flats was estimated to cost Rs 180 crore. The company had already collected Rs 120 crore as advance from the buyers,” said Prafulla Kumar Mishra, a customer.

The customers also accused the company of extending the flat-delivery deadline. 

“We are running out of patience as it has already been two years and we don’t see any hope of getting the flats,” said Sanghamitra Bisoi, another customer.

Panigrahi, along with two other directors, had been held on charges of cheating. The company had allegedly cheated customers of around Rs 315 crore on the pretext of providing them plots between 2009 and 2012. Sources said the firm had collected money from as many as 17,181 buyers promising them residential plots. But, 16,901 customers are yet to get the plots.

The crime branch, however, found that the company had collected a huge amount of money without having an adequate land bank. It also found that the firm used to divert the customers’ funds to its other business. “We are examining the allegations,” said economic offences wing superintendent of police R. Patnaik.

In February 2014, the Supreme Court had granted Panigrahi bail with a condition to deposit of Rs 63.5 crore with it for refund to the customers.