Last Sept. 28, a group of retired military officers demonstrated at Jantar Mantar, a historic site in New Delhi. “Though we are old veterans, we still have the strength to challenge your atrocity,” read the placard of one protester, who was leaning on a cane.
Their animus was directed at one of the New Delhi area’s biggest residential builders, Kabul Chawla. In 2008, nearly 200 military officers had put down deposits on apartments at Park Serene, a high-rise apartment complex Mr. Chawla was developing. In addition to a swimming pool, a community center and special prices for members of India’s military, a big drawing card was the prospect that the officers could live together in retirement.
More than six years later, the protesters say that Mr. Chawla’s company has collected almost 100 percent of the price of the Park Serene apartments from 400 buyers, payments the protesters estimate at more than $35 million. But the company has not completed the units. “They put their life savings in it,” said Brajesh Kumar, a retired Army major general and spokesman for the protesting officers, who have taken their grievances to a national consumer commission. “They thought that after their retirement they would move in. It’s not a happy situation for a large number of consumers.”
As complaints mount against Mr. Chawla, developer of two dozen other major residential complexes near New Delhi, many of the veterans are struggling to find a place to live.
Mr. Chawla does not appear to have that problem. Even when he is more than 7,000 miles away in New York, he enjoys the comforts of a 4,050-square-foot condominium in the Time Warner Center that has five bedrooms, a media/playroom, soaring ceilings and Central Park views.
Although Mr. Chawla denies owning the apartment, saying that he stays there but that it belongs to his cousin, The New York Times has unearthed correspondence among real estate brokers involved in the apartment’s purchase, as well as other sources, tying the condo to Mr. Chawla.
The ownership of the unit on the 68th floor of the Time Warner Center’s south tower is obscured by a corporate veil: a Delaware company with a Singapore address and a name, NYC Real Estate Opportunities, evoking the ambitions of an international buyer.
The secrecy surrounding 68AF is not unusual. Of the 192 condos at the Time Warner Center, nearly two-thirds are owned through shell companies, a Times investigation has found. Often the names of the people behind those shell companies are shrouded in secrecy. And 68AF is among the most carefully cloaked.
When the apartment was bought outright in February 2012 for $19.4 million, the backlash against Mr. Chawla had already begun in India.
Mr. Chawla, who is in his early 40s, got his start in the real estate business more than 20 years ago when he put up a building on property owned by his father. While his family name was well known in India — his cousin was the astronaut Kalpana Chawla, who died aboard the space shuttle Columbia — Mr. Chawla’s company, BPTP, was little known until 2005, when he began aggressively purchasing farmland near Faridabad, a suburb of New Delhi. At the time, a new commuter rail line and highway were progressing toward the suburb, and BPTP began buying land at prices as low as $12 per square yard, which it would later sell for more than 10 times that.
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To further investigate the ownership, The Times contacted one of the people on the “Kabul” email, Hall F. Willkie, the president of Brown Harris Stevens. Citing the deed on 68AF, The Times asked Mr. Willkie why it was signed by Aneil Anand and not Kabul Chawla. “I think they usually just put it in another name for public records,” he replied.
When The Times asked whether Kabul Chawla or Aneil Anand toured the apartment before purchase, he said he did not know but could not disclose that even if he did.
“The last thing we do is talk about them as individuals,” he said.
“So for you to talk about this deal you would have to ask Kabul for permission?” The Times continued.
“Yes,” Mr. Willkie responded.
The deal for 68AF was one of New York’s 25 most expensive residential sales of 2012. After it closed, Citi Habitats posted an interview with Ms. Rose on the company website in which she described it as “a very complicated deal — but in the end my client was very happy. He loves his new home and that’s all that matters.”
In an effort to reach Mr. Anand, a reporter tried to deliver him a bottle of wine at the Time Warner Center. But staff members there did not know who he was. A concierge at the front desk searched through a list of residents, looking for Aneil Anand. “We don’t have anyone by that name,” she said.
Stephanie Saul reported from Faridabad, India, and Louise Story from New York. Sai Manish contributed reporting from Faridabad.
To contact the reporters, email louise@nytimes.com and sauls@nytimes.com.
Design, graphics and production by Tom Giratikanon, Mika Gröndahl, Josh Keller, Yuliya Parshina-Kottas, Graham Roberts, Shreeya Sinha, Rumsey Taylor and Jeremy White.
