MUMBAI, Sept. 25 -- The Bombay High Court on Tuesday upheld exclusive rights of 58-year-old Shruti Mayank Shah over a high-stake Bandra flat after discovering that it had been fraudulently "resold" years after she had purchased and taken possession of it. The luxury apartment belonged solely to Shah and its resale was "null, void and illegal", the court held. Shah, a housewife, had bought the flat in 81 Aureate, a luxury tower at Bandra Reclamation, in December 2020 for Rs.11.75 crore, via a registered sale deed, she said in her plea. She had been living there since and paying maintenance regularly. But in 2024, she was shocked to learn through a real estate brokers' WhatsApp group that an "allotment letter" for the same flat had been issued in someone else's name. The letter, dated May 9, 2024, was issued on the letterhead of a non-existent company named "81 Aureate", and showed the flat being allotted to a certain Duggu Patel for just Rs.3.5 crore. Two months later, on July 31, 2024, Shah came across a registered sale agreement for the flat, showing Duggu Patel's husband, Ketan Patel, had bought it for Rs.8.78 crore. The agreement, however, was riddled with errors: it falsely described the building as "under construction" when it had been completed four years earlier, and claimed the flat was on the 25th floor, when it was actually on the 13th floor. Barely three weeks later, on August 22, 2024, Ketan Patel sold the flat to Manesh Madeka, a businessman, for Rs.12 crore, which raised further suspicion, Shah said in her plea. The developers of 81 Aureate, Ulltra Lifespace Pvt Ltd, distanced themselves from the transactions. In their statement before the court, they pointed out that the fraudulent documents bore the name of a ghost company, Ultra Life Space Pvt Ltd, which was deliberately made to look like theirs. They also noted that the allotment letter carried a fake address, phone number, and even a website of an unrelated company in Nepal. "We have not executed any such agreement, nor authorised anyone to do so," the developers said. They had filed a police complaint as soon as they discovered the fraud, they added. Justice Sandeep V Marne, who heard the case, said the facts spoke for themselves. "This case depicts a shocking and plain case of fraud," he wrote in the order. "A flat already sold to the plaintiff in 2020 is once again shown to have been allotted in 2024, and then quickly resold within weeks, all through a non-existent entity. The situation is impossible to digest." The judge noted that some of the "buyers" had effectively admitted their mistakes. In letters and emails, their lawyers had acknowledged "irregularities" in the paperwork and even claimed to be taking steps to cancel the fraudulent deals. Ketan Patel, who purportedly bought the flat in July 2024, admitted that forged documents, including fake utility bills, had been attached to his agreement. Manesh Madeka, who bought the flat from Patel three weeks later, told the court that he was "no longer interested" in the flat and was willing to walk away if his money was refunded. The court said there was no need for a long trial and declared that Shah's 2020 purchase remained valid and binding, while the later documents - the May 2024 allotment letter, July 2024 sale agreement and August 2024 sale deed - were all fake and carried no legal weight....