CBI chargesheets builder for fraud to secure land for mall

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Chandigarh, January 20

The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a chargesheet against M/s Ambience Developers and Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (earlier known as M/s HLF Enterprises Pvt Ltd) and its director Raj Singh Gehlot in a case arising out of delicensing of a part of area meant for a housing project for commercial purpose, thereby allowing construction of Ambience Mall on the Delhi-Jaipur.

At the directions of the Punjab and Haryana HC, the CBI, Chandigarh, had registered an FIR on August 5, 2020, for cheating (Section 420 of the IPC), forgery of valuable security (467), forgery for cheating (468), using as genuine a forged document (471), criminal conspiracy (120-B) and under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.

However, after investigation, the CBI has claimed no case has been made out against the accused or anybody else under Sections 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC, and under the PC Act, thereby saying criminal misconduct had not been found on part of state officials.

The chargesheet has been presented before a Panchkula court only for criminal conspiracy read with cheating against Gehlot and Ambience Developers, as it has been found that the builder hid information from home buyers about its intention to use the area meant for building housing project for commercial purposes, and earned a wrongful gain. Had the buyers known about it, they wouldn’t have bought apartments.

In 1992, HLF Enterprises Pvt Ltd had applied for setting up a group housing project at Nathupur village on the Delhi-Gurugram border. In 1996, the Director, Town and Country Planning Department (TCPD), approved the group housing scheme. In 1998, the builder floated the brochure for the housing project. Prominent among the promises made to the buyers was that 80 per cent of the area shall be reserved for open and community services.

However, the builder later moved an application seeking delicensing of eight acres of land out of 18.98 acres with further permission for setting up of a commercial complex. The HC, in its judgment dated July 10, 2020, had observed the order granting permission for a commercial complex on eight acres was passed on October 16, 2001, while the order to delicense the same area was passed on October 18, 2001, “showing a preconceived plan for a commercial complex to be raised within the area licensed for the residential complex”.

“This led to a situation that almost every statutory provision contained in the Act (Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975) and the Rules was violated resulting in a cascading effect compromising open spaces, roads, parks, community buildings and schools, etc,” said the HC.

However, the CBI has concluded delicensing was done as per an opinion from Legal Remembrancer and the benefit has been passed on to other builders too, giving a clean chit to officials of the TCPD.

The CBI has focused on the builder-buyer agreement too where an ambiguous term was used that eight acres were reserved for “future development”. There was no mention of the commercial complex. There was a delay in the submission of the deed of declarations too. The undivided interest of each apartment owner in the common area would be in the percentage expressed in the deed of declaration.

The HC had also commented it was intentionally delayed as there appeared to be the dishonest intention of the builder from the very inception of the project to dupe the buyers.

Carved out of housing project

• In 1992, HLF Enterprises applied for setting up a group housing project on Delhi-Gurugram border
• In 1996, TCPD approved scheme; buyers were promised 80% of open space
• Builder later got 8 out of 18.98 acres delicensed to set up Ambience Mall
• HC in its order said statutory provisions were violated, thus compromising open spaces, and asked CBI to file an FIR