Mumbai: D-man's Malad housing society books to be audited

Sonu Jalan, the chairman of the society

Acting on allegations of misappropriation of funds, the district deputy registrar of cooperative housing societies has called for an audit report of Auris Serenity society, a plush high-rise at Malad West where the chairman, Sonu Jalan, allegedly is a bookie and has links with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. The members had last month sought police protection saying Jalan had threatened them. Jalan has rubbished the charges. This newspaper on August 30 and September 5 had highlighted the plight of the residents of the 58-storey building, which is Malad's tallest tower.

Also read: Mumbai: Malad high-rise residents fear for lives, demand action against D-man

The 58-storey Auris Serenity is the tallest tower in Malad

In a letter to the district special auditor (class 1) cooperative societies, Mumbai, Kailash P Jebale, district deputy registrar, cooperative societies (iv) Mumbai, said: "In accordance with the complaint letter dated August 8 from residents of Auris Serenity Tower 1 Co-operative Housing Society to the office of Deputy Registrar, Co-operative Societies [Eastern and Western Suburbs SRA], it is requested to conduct a government audit from the time the society was registered in the year 2021 to March 2022."

Jebale added, "Name of the auditor who will be conducting the said audit of Auris Serenity Tower 1 Co-operative Housing Society for the period of 2021 to March 2022 should be informed to this office." The office of the district special auditor (class-1) co-op. society did not respond to mid-day's calls and messages.

The residents alleged that the committee of Malad's Auris Serenity collects transfer charges between R2L-R4L instead of R25,000 mandated by the law. Pics/Anurag Ahire

In their complaint, residents of Auris Serenity said, the interim committee headed by Jalan has been illegally collecting transfer charges ranging from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 4 lakh instead of Rs 25,000 as mandated by the law. The members also alleged that the provisional managing committee also spent up to Rs 40 lakh on items for which no bids or tenders were floated. The managing committee allegedly passed a resolution to construct a society office for Rs 35,00,000 without any approval and clearance from the BMC, SRA, or the even fire department and finished the construction in less than 20 days.

Chairman rubbishes charges

Jalan, chairman of the provisional committee, called the allegations baseless. "What proof do these handful of people have about my connection with Dawood Ibrahim? Do they have any evidence of me threatening them using Dawood Ibrahim's name? The money towards maintenance, etc. that society is collecting goes directly to the society's account and not to our personal accounts nor to Dawood Ibrahims. If they have proof they should come ahead and make it public. I, on the other hand, have evidence of one of these accusing members' lawyers sending a voice note of our secretary threatening him which I have put on record before all the society members. These are just four to five people, whereas I have 200 residents who are supporting the committee. We have also submitted complaints to the police regarding these members," Jalan said.

He added, "About the audit, we have already got an audit done by a government auditor, the report will be completed soon and we are planning to submit it to the district deputy registrar of the cooperative housing society's office after Ganesh Chaturthi. Apart from this, we haven't received any letter from the deputy registrar of the cooperative housing society's office pointing out any irregularities. I am sure they found none, hence they have sent any notices or letters to us. We have not threatened any residents in the society, instead, the ones accusing us are threatening us and have defamed us and we will soon take action against them."