Siddharth Mahajan fake document case: What we know so far
Siddharth Mahajan was a hardworking and intelligent individual who built a business that shot him to heights of prosperity. But success is always accompanied by anomalies. Mahajan found himself caught up in a legal conflict that was demotivating and rejecting but faced the situation with strong spirits because his conscience was clear.
To understand Siddharth Mahajan as a person and know the real truth behind the success of his business, it is crucial to understand the ups and downs he witnessed in his journey. Siddharth Mahajan was a self-made man, who pursued his college education in the Oriental School of Hotel Management and completed his three-year Bachelor’s Degree course in Hotel Management in 2002. This course included an International Hotel Hospitality Diploma affiliated with the prestigious American Hotel Lodging Association, which gave him the expertise and exposure that his equivalents might not have had. Mahajan was the first in his batch to receive college placement preceding his graduation. He was placed in the Oberoi group of hotels in its Rajvilas property in Jaipur. Oberoi Rajvilas in Jaipur is a five-star hotel in India and Siddharth Mahajan was working as a Front Office Assistant and Supervisor till 2005.
After his stint in the Oberoi hotel, he headed to London to create a career that would be more promising. In London Siddharth Mahajan worked with another reputed group in the hotel industry –Amba Hotel, Marble Arch where he was a Guest Relations Manager and his services earned him great appreciation from the guests. He then went on to work with Canary Wharf as Operations Manager before he decided to follow his heart and take a plunge into serving the community.
And thus he established Tulip Hotels and Real Estate Ltd. He founded the company after gauging that business travelers and students who visited the UK regularly sought accommodation options which gave them not only the comfort of a room but also the feeling of home. Siddharth Mahajan decided on creating and offering serviced apartments rental homes, fully equipped and fully functional. These houses offered all amenities and facilities like electricity, water, gas and internet connections. These properties were also strategically placed to offer maximum commute convenience to clients.
The truth about Siddharth Mahajan fake documents case
The business witnessed exponential growth through the years; however, one day in 2015, Siddharth received a notice from Barking and Dagenham Borough, a locality in East London. The notice stated that three of his properties did not have appropriate licenses and were hence illegal. These three properties were let out as HMOs with six rooms each and were categorized as ‘small HMOs’ as per the government’s rules and regulations.
Siddharth Mahajan, however, explained to the authorities that all three properties had the requisite permissions. He contended that at the time of licensing he was not informed by the concerned authorities about the need to submit plans for the HMOs and hence he cannot be blamed for the lapse. The local authority of the borough stated that the legal requirement to submit plans were introduced in the year 2012 while Siddharth Mahajan had applied for licenses in 2014. But Siddharth Mahajan stated that if submission of plans for the HMOs were needed back then itself, he would have definitely been apprised of the same by the concerned officials. He also questioned why was he allotted licenses to run his HMOs if he had not submitted all the necessary documents.
The borough authorities stated that there were two departments concerned with licensing HMOs and that it was mandatory to get signed off from both departments. Meanwhile, Siddharth agreed that he acquired this information at later stages as his business developed. The authorities, however, dissatisfied with these explanations, leveled foul play allegations against him.
Out of the three properties in conflict, one HMO received a clean chit from the authorities. And since Siddharth was initially advised against speaking about the case outside, it became a breeding ground for a variety of allegations against him.
It must be noted that Siddharth Mahajan Tulip had leased out 60 assets from private landlords and as it turns out, the properties which were considered illegal by the authorities were in fact already functioning as six-room HMOs even before Siddharth Mahajan leased them out. These facts surfaced during the investigation and Siddharth Mahajan pleaded that he was being framed. In essence, he claimed he was being incriminated for someone else’s errors. Finally, out of the 18 charges placed on him by the authorities, only two were furthered and he was convicted of ‘perverting the course of justice’. The remaining 16 charges did not hold due to a lack of evidence. Fundamentally, the Siddharth Mahajan fake documents case is based on untrue facts and he is sure of receiving justice in due course.
