Mumbai, Dec 23: Justice SN Variava of the Special Court here on Tuesday turned down the application made by a Mumbai-based real estate consultants, Gabriel & Co, seeking lease/purchase of a flat belonging to Harshad S Mehta located at NCPA apartments in the city's posh Nariman Point area. The court, instead, accepted the highest bid made by Freeport Investment & Trading Pvt Ltd.

The review application by Gabriel & Co, apparently made on behalf of a prominent businessman, quoted an offer of Rs 20 lakh more than the highest bid made by Freeport Investment & Trading Pvt Ltd. Freeport is the group company of the city-based Litolier.

The revised offer submitted by Gabriel offered around Rs 3 crore as deposit accompanied with 60 months lease rent payable in advance at the rate of Rs 6 lakh per month. The company also agreed to pay Rs 2.4 crore at the time of purchase of the flat. A second offer of Rs 4.48 crore was also made by the company seeking outright purchase of the flat. Three companies including Gabriel & Co, Decimal Trading and Freeport had bid for Harshad Mehta's three bedroom flat located on the 20th floor of the NCPA apartments. The flat which comes along with two car parking spaces is in the name of Zest Holdings, one of Harshad Mehta's group companies.

Gabriel & Co in its review application alleged that the representative of Freeport, Niten Goel is trying to offer and find buyers for the flat, which is in violation of the terms and conditions and goes against the spirit of inviting offers of bids.

Justice Variava in an order delivered last month had stated that "the flat is being given out on leave and license basis for period of five years with an option to purchase at the end of five years, at a rate to be fixed at present."

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