QSM Davinder Rahal in debt: Two buildings, bankrupt buyer – and ties to former jailed Masala boss

Karam Dhadli is bankrupt, chased by creditors, losing his house and has already lost a Mercedes.

Yet the 34-year-old Auckland developer – with family ties to those behind the Masala restaurants scandal – is understood to be involved in the purchase of a building worth as much as $7 million.

The Herald understands Dhadli, through a company he controlled, was the successful bidder last July for 609-611 Great South Rd – a Manukau commercial building being bitterly fought over in the courts.

Creditors stepped in last year to force the building’s sale to recover money owed by a trust controlled by Davinder Rahal – a Queen’s Service Medal recipient and well-known South Auckland businessman.

Rahal’s trust company owes the bank, the tax office and a law firm, receivers’ reports show.

A young couple is also chasing Rahal for almost $1m after winning a court judgment that he deceived them into buying a rotting, leaky home.

The final settlement of 609-611 Great South Rd – which was sold in July 2025 – has now stalled for almost a year.

Some creditors claim the Rahal family have continually delayed its sale by lodging one court claim and caveat after another.

Now they fear Dhadli’s bankruptcy could stall the sale – and potentially start a resale process.

Georgina Grant – the lawyer acting for the deceived young couple – said the Rahals’ apparent stall tactics had so far been unsuccessful.

“I’ve never seen a party go to such extreme lengths ... over my 30 years of practice,” she said.

For the young couple, Renu Khajuria and Ameet Bhargav, there is urgency to get the building – owned by Rahal’s trust company – sold.

They fear that if it drags on, much of the money raised from the sale will need to go to pay lawyers and liquidators, leaving little remaining to cover what Rahal owes them in damages and costs.

Two buildings, millions owed

Dhadli’s bid to buy the building is just one strand in a far larger tangle of people, companies and court files.

At its centre are two Manukau buildings.

They are the 609-611 Great South Rd property, and another commercial building just down the road at 736 Great South Rd.

Each building is owned either by Rahal or a trust linked to his family, property records show.

And each building is being circled by unpaid creditors.

But there is another twist, according to some of those chasing Rahal for money.

They claim to have seen fellow South Auckland businessman Rupinder Singh Chahil sitting alongside the Rahals during their High Court hearings.

Chahil received widespread media coverage over the past decade as the former boss of the Masala Indian restaurant chain.

He was convicted of exploiting migrant workers, and jailed in 2020 for tax evasion and money laundering.

He was also jailed in 2009 for two years for kidnapping and ordering the serious assault of two workers who quit his restaurant.

Public records show a South Auckland home has changed hands between the Rahals and a company associated with the Chahils.

The Rahals’ family home – owned by Davinder and wife Jivan Jyoti for 19 years – passed into ownership of a company associated with the Chahil family in 2024, property records show.

Then, just under a year later, it passed to the Rahals’ son, Moheet Rahal, according to property records.

Now Chahil’s nephew, Dhadli, is linked – as the successful bidder through one of his companies – to the Rahals’ 609-611 Great South Rd.

Property one: 609-611 Great South Rd

On paper, 609-611 Great South Rd is a prized asset to own.

The 2280sq m building sits on a huge 4137sq m block in one of South Auckland’s busiest commercial strips and has a $7.1m council valuation.

However, in 2024, a legal bill that Rahal’s company failed to pay triggered a chain of events that forced his trust into liquidation – with the building being sold off to pay creditors, a liquidator report stated.

Dhadli’s bid was understood to have been deemed the winner after the building went through a public advertising campaign run by a real estate firm.

Top of the creditor pile is ASB, which was owed $2.8m on the mortgage, according to liquidator reports.

Khajuria and Bhargav are unsecured creditors, meaning they will only be paid after ASB, a law firm and the tax office get their cuts.

The couple have a creditor claim for $962,610 after taking Rahal to court over a leaky Manukau house he sold them in 2020.

High Court judge Anne Hinton said Rahal authorised superficial, cosmetic repairs to mask water damage to the house, before relisting it as “newly renovated” and selling to Khajuria and Bhargav.

Hinton labelled Rahal’s actions a “cover-up”.

Property two: 736 Great South Rd

Down the road a second building is also being sold to recover money Rahal owes.

Rahal and his wife own the 2400sq m 736 Great South Rd building.

But in June 2024, ASB demanded $605,431 be repaid on a loan the Rahals had guaranteed — and, when it wasn’t paid, moved to sell the 736 property to recover the debt.

This time the man trying to buy it is Rahal’s own tenant, Suminder “Shane” Sohal — who has spent five years in legal battles with the Rahals.

Sohal has run his Texas Smokehouse restaurant from the building since 2020.

He said he’s had to fight Rahal most of that time — over renovations, a new deck, a lack of building certificates needed for a liquor licence, and other costs.

He has so far come out ahead in the legal fight: an arbitrator awarded him a six-figure sum, and the High Court in 2025 threw out Rahal’s bid to contest the claims in court and ordered them to pay costs.

Then last November, Sohal saw his chance to turn the tables.

He won the tender to buy the restaurant building, seeing it as a way to secure his business and be rid of Rahal.

He said he’s paid the deposit and is ready to settle, but the sale has also stalled.

Stalled sales: ‘Caveat after caveat’

The Rahals appear to have used a similar playbook to contest – and consequently hold up – the sale of both buildings, some creditors claim.

At 609-611 they have lodged caveat after caveat – legal documents that halt a sale and require the other side to go to court to remove them.

That included Rahal’s wife Jivan Jyoti, lodging a caveat, then a court claim seeking to have the building put into her own name. Neither succeeded – they either lapsed or were struck out, a liquidator report said.

Then in May this year, their son Moheet lodged a caveat of his own over the building. That fight is still unresolved.

Jared Booth from Baker Tilly Staples Rodway – the receivers selling 609–611 – said his team had worked to remove every caveat the family put over the property.

He was aware the delays were costing creditors money, he said.

“The concerns of creditors over the actions of Mr Rahal and parties associated to him, and the negative impact of those actions upon creditors, are acknowledged,” Booth said.

At 736, the Rahals have fought in the courts — with wife Jivan Jyoti this week scoring an interim win.

After Sohal’s winning bid of $3.225m for the restaurant building was accepted last year, Jivan Jyoti argued the building had been sold too cheaply.

In a High Court judgment on Tuesday, she was given 15 working days to pay back the debt owed to ASB.

If she does so it will void the building’s sale to Sohal.

Justice Johnstone found the law gave her the right to pay off the debt any time before 736 Great South Rd settled.

Johnstone also said there was “a serious question” about whether the bank had failed in its duty to get the best price during the mortgagee sale marketing campaign that led to Sohal’s offer being accepted.

Family ties

Khajuria and Sohal question Dhadli’s involvement, and whether he is an independent, arm’s-length buyer.

They point to the Rahal and Chahil family’s apparent links via the Rahal family home.

They also point to apparent business links between the Chahil and Dhadli families.

Companies Office records show Dhadli registered two of his businesses at buildings Chahil companies have also used.

Dhadli’s father, Supinder Singh, was director of a company which previously owned a Chahil family home.

Singh has also been a director of multiple companies named in a 2017 judgment related to the Masala restaurant scandal.

‘Where does the money come from?’

Dhadli was himself in financial trouble when bidding in 2025 to buy 609-611 Great South Rd.

His One Group company had already collapsed owing an alleged $1.3m by 2024, and a creditor had been trying to bankrupt him in the High Court.

He was ultimately declared bankrupt in May this year, with his Tōtara Park home now being sold out from under him.

The Official Assignee – the Government agency overseeing bankruptcies – confirmed it is watching to see Dhadli does not continue acting as director of his businesses.

For Grant, acting for Khajuria and Bhargav, the caveats, court claims and legal twists keep adding up to one thing – delays.

She wants 609-611 Great South Rd sold as soon as possible so her clients can be repaid the court damages owed to them for the leaky house case.

“All the delays do is hold it up – and chew up the money and prevent [Khajuria and Bhargav] from fixing their home and moving on,” she said.

The Herald sought comment from Dhadli, Rahal, Chahil and Singh but all declined to comment.