Parking lot scam: Ex-Additional Commissioner among 4 chargesheeted

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed charge-sheet against Pashchatya Entertainment and four other persons in a cheating case registered for allegedly committing fraud with the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.

The charge-sheet has been filed against Satish Kumar Jain, former Additional Commissioner; Monil Chauhan, an employee; Ram Sunder Prasad Singh, Sanjay Sharma and the company, Pashchatya Entertainment, before the court of Special Judicial Magistrate, CBI Court, Chandigarh.

The court has issued notices to the accused for December 15, 2025.

The charge-sheet had been filed under Section 120-B, read with Section 420-B of IPC. The CBI booked the company its directors and unknown public servants for cheating and fraud on January 10, 2024.

Sources said the CBI, in 2023, had seized the entire record of the parking lots’ allotment after bungling in the matter came to the fore.

The CBI claimed in the FIR that it has been found that M/s Paschataya and M/s Ram Sunder in connivance with officials of the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh, paid less stamp duty while executing the respective lease/licence deed in the office of Sub Registrar, Chandigarh.

As per the inquiry, the stamp duty to be paid for the execution of lease/licence deed in the office of the Sub Registrar by both the parking contractors — Prasad (32 parking lots) and Paschataya Entertainment (57 parking lots) — for operation and management was supposed to be about Rs 21.05 lakh. Instead of this, only Rs 7.01 lakh was paid causing loss to the revenue authorities.

The average annual amount was Rs 5 crore for the operation and management of 32 paid Parking of Zone-l in Chandigarh and Rs 10 lakh should have been paid as stamp duty in the Office of the Sub Registrar for executing the deed, but the same was not paid. Similarly, Rs 11 lakh should have been paid as stamp duty by Pashchatya Entertainment, but the same was also not paid.

After the inquiry Sachin Singh, Sub-Inspector, CBI, ACB, Chandigarh, filed the complaint.

As per the FIR, a joint surprise check was conducted on April 5, 2023, on inputs from a reliable source that the MC executed two agreements — one with Pashchatya Entertainment for 57 paid parking areas in Zone-II and another with Ram Sunder Prasad Singh of Patna for 32 paid parking areas in Zone-l for annual license fees of Rs 5,51,11,111 and Rs 5,01,03,001, respectively, initially for a period of three years with effect from January 23, 2020.

Both the contractors were issued letter of intent and allotment letter without executing the licence/lease deed. The licence/lease deed was executed around 1.5 years later after the issuance of allotment letter through Monil Chauhan, Superintendent (Parking), on the direction of Satish Kumar Jain, the then Additional Commissioner (II), Municipal Corporation.

As per both contractors, the lease deeds were prepared by Monil Chauhan and handed over to them for executing the same. She was well aware about the amount of lease deed as Superintendent Grade-Il. It was her duty to check the amount of average annual lease on which the stamp duty was to be paid in the office of the Sub Registrar.