MUMBAI, Sept. 17 -- A Chembur-based developer has been charged with cheating a bank of Rs.16.49 crore. Police said the builder had taken a loan of Rs.20 crore from Axis Bank by mortgaging 18 flats and a commercial property, but stopped repaying the loan and even sold the mortgaged flats. According to officers of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police, the case was registered at the Chembur police station against Paras Dedhia, a resident of Lower Parel who runs Yash Signature Projects and Yash Builders Construction, building a project in Deonar. In 2015, Dedhia had taken a loan of Rs.15 crore from a non-banking finance company, IIFL, to complete the project. He had mortgaged 18 flats and an office to secure the loan. That same year, Dedhia applied for a term loan of Rs.20 crore from Axis Bank, to clear his dues with IIFL and complete the project. "Dedhia had mortgaged Yash Signature and Yash Heights projects as surety for the term loan. Under the agreement, the money available from the sale of flats was to be transferred to an escrow account, and money available from advances was to be used to repay the bank loan. The developer was not allowed to sell any flat without a No-Objection Certificate from the bank, which had the rights to sell the mortgaged property if the developer failed to repay the loan," said a police officer. The bank and the developer had prepared a mortgage deed and some properties were shown as collateral mortgage, primary security and collateral security. Until 2017, the developer paid the EMIs regularly but, in 2018, his loan was declared as NPA. "When he didn't reply to notices, the bank approached the Debts Recovery Tribunal (DRT), but when the bank and court receiver visited the property to take possession of the mortgaged flats, they found that the developer had sold all the properties to individual buyers, thus keeping them as in the dark about the flats being mortgaged," said the police officer. Police said Dedhia has thus caused a wrongful loss of Rs.16.49 crore to the bank and they have registered an FIR against him....