DUBAI // Victims of an alleged property scam in Kerala have appealed to the state's chief minister to fulfil his promise of sending a high-level police team to investigate.
Indian expatriates in the UAE have also urged India's courts to speed up legal proceedings so they can get justice in the matter.
Apple A Day Properties, which is under criminal investigation, is accused of defrauding hundreds of investors in India and the Gulf.
The company had promised to build hotel apartments near Cochin airport and hand them over to investors by 2008 so they could manage the apartments and collect rent.
The developer allegedly used presentations at property shows in the emirates to entice expatriates to invest, then took their money without finishing the projects.
More than 100 people from the UAE bought in. Many borrowed large sums of money from banks to pay builders.
One Abu Dhabi investor said he sunk more than Dh100,000 in the project.
"I took a loan and pay interest every month," said Sanjeev Dan Mathews. "I urge the Kerala government to take up the matter seriously and provide justice to us."
Mr Mathews feared that the builder's plan is to delay the project and prolong the case in court so that justice may be denied to investors.
"We held several discussions with the builders earlier here and in Kerala, and they only bought time by giving us false assurances," he said."But we are afraid that with time, the half-built structures will become entirely useless and only the investors will suffer.
"We urge the honourable court in Kerala to attach the properties of the builders and recover the huge sums of money collected from us, and hand over the same along with the property to our lawyer so that we can consider the next step to complete the project.
"Exemplary punishment should be given to the builders."
Another investor urged the Kerala chief minister, Ommen Chandy, to send a high-level police team to the Gulf as part of investigations into the scheme.
"Many of the investors have paid in full for the property and the builders have withdrawn the money," said George Mathews of Ras Al Khaimah, who invested Dh70,000 in an Apple A Day property. "Some of us have taken huge loans to pay for the project and are still paying the interest to the banks. We are at a great loss."
Menon, an investor who would give only his first name, said the builder put on lavish presentations in the UAE.
"We all believed him and paid the money for the project," Menon said. "We never knew we would be cheated like this. It is shocking."
He said the victims had formed an Apple Suites Owners Association last year. "We will not leave until the matter is solved," he said. "It's our hard-earned money that we spent for the project."
