Accused summoned to face trial in ED's Manesar land scam case
Bhartesh Singh Thakur
Chandigarh, January 7
The court of Special Judge, Prevention of Money Laundering Act, Panchkula, Sudhir Parmar, has summoned five more accused to face trial in the Enforcement Directorate’s case of the Manesar land scam.
The alleged scam pertains to the purchase of land from farmers at meagre rates and then earning huge profits by getting it released in connivance with bureaucracy and politicians. There are more than 35 accused in the case, including firms.
A notification to acquire 912 acres and 7 marlas in Manesar, Lakhnaula and Naurangpur villages of Gurugram district was issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, in 2004.
As per ED’s fresh supplementary complaint, accused Ajay Krishan Goyal, director of Angelique International Ltd, had purchased notified land measuring 156 kanal and 9.5 marlas in Naurangpur from various land owners for Rs 10.64 crore and further sold to Girnar Infrastructure Pvt Ltd for Rs 14.67 crore in 2007. The “proceeds of crime” generated here was Rs 3.39 crore, observed the court, in its order dated January 4.
Accused Anil Batra, director of Conway Developers Pvt Ltd, and Joginder Pal, on behalf of Earl Infotech Pvt Ltd (having a collaboration agreement with landowners namely Balbir Singh and Ram Pyari), had submitted an application for a licence for a group housing project on 14.95 acres.
Further, Earl Infotech Pvt Ltd and another firm, Frontier Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, requested the Director, Town and Country Planning (DTCP), for the release of their land from the acquisition process in 2007.
The court observed that Batra sent the request to the then Chief Minister (Bhupinder Singh Hooda) for the release of land from the acquisition which was received in the Director, Town and Country Planning (DTCP) office on August 17, 2007. After processing, the then DTCP, SS Dhillon, submitted the file to his senior IAS officer DS Dhesi on November 14, 2007. The then Additional Principal Secretary to CM, Chhatar Singh, passed the order “CM has approved” on November 25, 2007. Therefore, the licence was issued after the approval of Dhillon on May 7, 2008, the court observed.
In this case, Frontier Home Developers, after taking over the land-owned company, entered into collaboration with Godrej Properties Limited for a group housing project. A total of 114 flats having an area of 2,75,408 sq ft were handed over to Frontier Home Developers, Earl Infotech, Balbir Singh and Ram Pyari along with revenue sharing from Godrej Properties Ltd amounting to Rs 35.3 crore.
“The perusal of statutory records reveals that total receipts to the extent of Rs 83.67 crore has been earned by Frontier Home Developers Pvt Ltd on account of revenue sharing received from Godrej Properties Ltd, the collaborator, and on account of sales of flats. Thus, the proceeds of crime to the extent of Rs 77.71 crore (excluding the cost of land) have been generated by the subject companies of the accused,” said the court.
Another accused Lalit Modi formed companies in acquiring land portions and further transferred the firms and land to Atul Bansal or ABW Group companies on handsome profit.
Bansal got three licences from the TCP Department for Rs 7.03 crore and spent Rs 11.82 crore on account of acquiring land measuring 45.986 acres and selling the same for Rs 188.92 crore. He earned a profit of Rs 169.25 crore as “proceeds of crime”, said the court.
About the case
The scam pertains to the purchase of land from farmers at meagre rates and then earning huge profits by getting it released in connivance with bureaucracy and politicians. There are more than 35 accused in the case, including firms.
