Sabeer Bhatia, the Hotmail co-founder, has shared a bitter experience of his life when he was cheated by a builder for a flat in Gurgaon years ago. Bhatia implies that many such stories are rampant in India, which is why there is a trust deficit among people in the country.

Who Cheated Sabeer Bhatia and What is the Story?

Bhatia shared an experience on Twitter where he purchased a home in Gurgaon for a whooping $1 million, which is roughly equal to Rs 9.3 crores today. As per Bhatia, he made the advance payment long before the possession and trusted the builder to deliver the home as promised.

Bhatia says that everything was good about the home, the space was impressive, except for the construction quality. Bhatia claims that the construction quality was so poor that he could not hammer a nail in the wall to hang the painting, implying that the builder probably used substandard materials, such as POP and other fillers, to save costs, instead of an adequate mix of cement and aggregates.

But what was surprising was that the builder was Sabeer Bhatia’s business partner, which is why Sabeer exclaims that there is a massive trust deficit in India.

The story reminds us that being rich and powerful does not shield people from alleged fraud or unethical practices from corrupt people, and that timely due diligence is necessary in a country like India, especially when it comes to real estate.

Netizens Slam Sabeer Bhatia For Saying that India has Trust Deficit

Just like with many of his comments, many netizens did not agree with Bhatia’s sentiments on this matter, and one of the users even opined that he should be blaming the business partner for getting cheated instead of blaming the government.

Most of the netizens expressed that Sabeer being cheated by his builder partner should not be generalized as a whole of India being corrupt.