Karam Dhadli is bankrupt, chased by creditors and set to lose two houses — now his collapse is threatening to trigger a fresh wave of bitter lawsuits.
The 34-year-old developer last year signed a purchase agreement for a South Auckland commercial building with a council valuation of $7.1 million.
Receivers had forcibly put the 609-611 Great South Rd, Manukau, building up for sale to recover money owed by the property’s owner — a trust controlled by well-known South Auckland businessman and Queen’s Service medal recipient Davinder Rahal.
But almost a year on, the sale has now collapsed, and receivers are turning their attention to what they said appeared to be a “carefully orchestrated effort” to stop the building selling.
Receivers Baker Tilly Staples Rodway believe attempts to sell had been obstructed by caveats “lodged without reasonable cause” — legal documents that halt a sale and require the other side to go to court to remove them.
Now they are threatening legal action.
“Should the court determine that parties have unlawfully lodged caveats, we plan to pursue claims against both the legal representatives and the individuals responsible,” receiver Tony Maginness said.
“Our claims are likely to be substantial.”
The 609-611 Great South Rd building in Manukau - as pictured in its Ray White real estate listing - was put on sale by receivers in the middle of 2025. It had been owned by a trust controlled by Davinder Rahal, a Queens Service Medal recipient and South Auckland businessman.
The building is one of two Manukau commercial properties at the centre of bitter legal fights between the Rahal family and those chasing them for money.
A young couple is among those in legal pursuit of Rahal as they seek almost $1m after winning a court judgment stating he deceived them into buying a rotting, leaky suburban home.
For the couple - Renu Khajuria and Ameet Bhargav - there is an urgency to get the 609-611 Great South Rd building sold.
They fear that if a new sale cannot be completed soon, much of the money raised will go to paying lawyers and liquidators, leaving little to cover what Rahal owes them.
It’s a fear echoed by receiver Maginness.
“Unfortunately, these actions have slowed our progress and resulted in mounting interest costs and increased professional fees, which ultimately impact unsecured creditors,” he said about the delays.
609-611 Great South Rd
The Herald understands that Karam Dhadli (top) made the winning bid to buy 609-611 Great South Rd in Auckland after it was put into a forced sale to recover a debt owed by a trust run by Davinder Rahal (bottom) and his wife.
On paper, the 2280sq m building — sitting on a huge block in one of South Auckland’s busiest commercial strips — is a prized asset to own.
But in 2024, an unpaid legal bill triggered a chain of events that forced the building’s owner - Rahal’s trust - into liquidation, a liquidator report stated.
The building was publicly marketed for sale and Dhadli’s company IKK Ltd emerged with a deal, signing a sale and purchase agreement in July 2025.
But the sale never settled.
Rahal’s wife, Jivan Jyoti, lodged a caveat over the building, then a court claim seeking to have it transferred into her own name. Neither succeeded.
In May, the couple’s son Moheet lodged a caveat of his own. That fight is still unresolved.
Then Dhadli’s finances collapsed along the way.
At the time he bid for the building, another of his companies, One Group, had already collapsed owing an alleged $1.3m — and a creditor was chasing him towards bankruptcy in the High Court.
He was eventually declared bankrupt in May — and as IKK’s sole shareholder, his ownership passed to the Official Assignee, which last month, signed the resolution putting the company into liquidation.
The first financial report into the failed company revealed it “couldn’t complete” the Great South Rd purchase - throwing the long-delayed deal into disarray.
With IKK in liquidation and unlikely to hold much cash or assets, receiver Maginness said there was now “little value in pursuing action against the company itself”.
Instead, the receivers’ focus had turned those behind the caveats, he said.
Suminder Sohal made the winning bid on a second property at 736 Great South Rd after it was put into a forced sale in 2025 to recover a debt that Davinder Rahal (bottom) and his wife made a personal guarantee on.
What happens next
The collapse leaves the receivers needing to sell the building again — and handle Moheet Rahal’s caveat that is still sitting unresolved before the courts.
Creditors keep waiting — with interest costs and professional fees mounting the longer the building stays unsold.
Among them are ASB, which was owed $2.8m on the building’s mortgage, along with the tax office, Auckland Council and a law firm, receivers’ reports show.
The stalled sale is also not the Rahal family’s only property fight.
As the Herald has previously reported, a second Manukau building down the road at 736 Great South Rd — owned by Rahal and his wife — is also being sold to recover debts, with that sale recently contested in the High Court.
Questions over the buyer
Davinder Rahal previously had a finance company chase him for $180,000 owed on a luxury 2015 Rolls Royce Ghost.
Khajuria, Bhargav and another creditor battling the Rahals in court, Suminder Sohal, questioned whether Dhadli was an arm’s length, independent buyer for 609-611 Great South Rd.
They also claimed his uncle, Rupinder Singh Chahil, had been seen sitting in court with the Rahal family.
As the Herald has previously reported, public records show apparent business and property links between the Dhadli and Singh Chahil families.
DO YOU KNOW MORE? EMAIL SENIOR JOURNALIST BEN LEAHY
Family ties
Karam Dhadli's home at 378 Redoubt Rd in Totara Vale is currently up for mortgagee sale.
Chahil himself is the former boss of the Masala Indian restaurant chain — convicted of exploiting migrant workers and jailed in 2020 for tax evasion and money laundering, having earlier been jailed in 2009 over the kidnapping and serious assault of two workers.
Property records also show the Rahals’ family home — owned by Davinder and wife Jivan Jyoti for 19 years — passed to a company associated with the Chahil family in 2024, then on to the Rahals’ son, Moheet, just under a year later.
The Herald sought comment from Dhadli and Rahal for this article but they did not respond.
For Maginness, the hope is that the courts can now deliver for those left waiting.
“We are hopeful that any funds recovered will be used to pay creditors who have been affected by what appears to be a carefully orchestrated effort to prevent the property’s sale,” he said.
