BENGALURU: Over a span of five years, three IIT Kanpur graduates – Nikung Bhatija, Jatin Mitruka and Aakash Verma — made lives of more than 5,000 people comfortable with their new startup, Homingo, an online platform to rent furnished places on flexible terms to young working professionals and students.
Now, more than 3,000 residents across the city are left with either no houses to stay, no rooms or beds. Looking at the spiral in the number of complaints received, the jurisdictional police transferred the case to Central Crime Branch sleuths.
“They have cheated many people, we got 15 to 20 complaints in the past two weeks, apart from those registered with several police stations across the city. We expect more people to come forward,” said Girish S, DCP (Crime), who is investigating the case.
The accused, who set up the startup in 2015, went missing this March. They had leased more than 100 properties, in which they would rent beds, rooms or the entire house. They worked on a model where they leased properties or apartments and sub-leased them to customers after furnishing them. The company had raised its funding from investors such as Mebelkart and Livespace. The tenants realised this when they failed to get back their security deposit of Rs 50,000 or lease amounts running into lakhs of rupees, at the end of the rental/ lease period. In some cases, the tenants were asked to leave.
“The company was not returning our calls. We were staying at ‘Homigo Cinzel’ in Sarjapur and were asked by the original property owner to vacate the flats by March 20. We tried calling the Homigo guys and also sent an email. While some got a response saying that they will be “unavailable” for two months, several others’ calls went unattended,” said an affected customer who has also lost a deposit of Rs 50,000. The company has not just cheated tenants but also lease holders and many creditors.
For instance, Amit Purohit, a creditor of Homigo, shared that he is one of the biggest on-books creditor of Homingo, with shares worth lakhs of rupees, a Rs 1 crore loan to the company and had also given furniture worth Rs 3.5 crore on rent. “We have rental dues of over Rs 50 lakh. Our equity money and loan is gone and we also got an injunction suit from the HC, so that our furniture is not taken away. Unfortunately, many miscreants and ex-employees have taken advantage of the situation and using duplicate keys to a house in Indiranagar, stolen appliances and the TV,” Amit Purohit shared.
With no option left, those who have been cheated have formed a Facebook group ‘Action against Homigo’, comprising 705 members. There are creditors, tenants, lease givers and also employees of Homigo on the group. “People do not have flats to stay. There are many who have leased flats, and now the owner is saying a new agreement can be drawn up directly with them, but they have to pay a lease amount of Rs 17 lakh. From where do we get that money?” said a tenant from a HSR Homigo house.
Tenants are continuously coming forward from different Homigo-rented properties with their complaints, so the fraud is yet to be assessed. However, based on police complaints and people’s inputs, the startup allegedly cheated them of up to Rs 20 crore. The company’s office in BTM Layout, Bengaluru, has been locked since March first week, and all employees have been handed pink slips.