Ahmedabad: A scientist at Isro-Space Applications Centre (SAC) residing in Vikramnagar, Satellite, was allegedly cheated by an interior design company tasked with doing up his house at Shaligram Prime Marigold in South Bopal area of the city.
Ravikamal Chaudhry filed a cheating complaint against home interior design company GJSD Industry Pvt Ltd and its owner at Satellite police station on Saturday.
According to the FIR, on Oct 25 last year, Chaudhry entered into an agreement with GJSD and its owner Gurunamsingh Diguwa for the interior design work.
According to the deal’s details, the cost of the project was fixed at Rs 8.5 lakh with an upfront payment of Rs 7 lakh. The balance was to be paid after the project’s completion.
Chaudhry even rented a house for Rs 30,000 per month so the work could go on smoothly. He transferred Rs 7 lakh — Rs 5 lakh first and then Rs 2 lakh — into two of Diguwa’s bank accounts. Despite receiving 90% of the payment in advance, the company allegedly failed to commence work as promised.
Chaudhry claimed he repeatedly contacted Diguwa to ask him to start the project but received no response.
He even visited the company’s office in Dec 2023, where he was given empty assurances that work would begin soon, the FIR states.
Frustrated by lack of progress in the work assigned, in Jan, Chaudhry demanded cancellation of the agreement and a full refund of the amount paid. The complaint states that GJSD initially agreed to it and issued a cheque, which allegedly bounced. Subsequent attempts to receive the payment online were unsuccessful.
Chaudhry finally received a partial refund of Rs 3.5 lakh in April, leaving Rs 3.86 lakh as outstanding amount, which includes three months of rent Chaudhry had to pay up due to the delay.
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