ED traces money trail in Manesar land scam

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 18

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) in its supplementary chargesheet against 13 accused, including firms, has claimed to have traced the money trail in Manesar land scam.

The supplementary chargesheet was submitted before Special Judge at Panchkula, designated to try cases for money laundering, on June 5.

The main accused, who earned maximum profit in the scam, Atul Bansal and his wife Sona, are absconding in the case. A Lookout Circular was also issued for Bansal on February 22, 2019.

Money trail

The notification under Section 4 of Land Acquisition Act, 1894 in respect of villages Manesar, Lakhnaula and Naurangpur in Gurugram for 912 acre was made on August 27, 2004, for Industrial Model Township. But 224 acre was released after hearing objections under Section 5 A. Then, notification under Section 6 was issued.

The scam pertains to purchasing land from farmers at meagre rates and then earning huge profits by getting it released in connivance with bureaucracy and politicians.

The ED says that Atul Bansal was well aware about the acquisition proceedings but despite that he started and continued to purchase the notified land, in the name of his companies namely Aditya Buildwell Pvt Ltd (now known as ABWIL), Jassum Estates Pvt Ltd, Jassum Towers Pvt Ltd and Jassum Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, as he knew he would get the land released. He also purchased 12 land owning companies having the notified land. In total, he got 239 acres.

Middlemen also made money

According to ED, Shashikant Chaurasia, Dilip Lalwani, Raj Kumar Arora and Lalit Modi purchased 87.82 acre land at meagre rates from farmers and sold it to Bansal at a profit of Rs 6.04 crore. Varinder Uppal, Vijay Uppal and Viney Uppal took over the company Mount Valley Pvt Ltd of Virender Dhingra having 16.57 acre, and further sold to Bansal and earned a profit of Rs 7.87 crore.

Ravinder Kumar Taneja who was then MD TDI Infrastructure Ltd, along with others created or purchased companies namely Indo Asian Construction Co Ltd, Divya Jyoti Enterprises Pvt Ltd and NCR Properties Pvt Ltd solely for the purchase of notified land and sold them to Bansal at a profit of Rs 3.12 crore.

Bansal applied for licences for 190 acre on December 28, 2006 on behalf of 15 firms though he had no authorisation on behalf of 11 firms, but the fact was overlooked by Director Town and Country Planning (DTCP).

In conspiracy with “bureaucrats” and “government machinery”, he procured six licences and further sold three of them, earning Rs 169.25 crore as proceeds of crime, says ED.

Multiple deposits of crores of rupees had been deposited in the various accounts of Bansal’s firms on the “same dates”.

The two licences were sold to DLF Home Developers Limited for Rs 150.95 crore and one to Kalinga Realtors Private Limited for Rs 37.96 crore, for land measuring 45.986 acre, though land cost and licences incurred only Rs 19.66 crore.

Fake ‘agreements to sell’

In order to hide the “Proceeds of Crime”, ABWIL and its group companies, entered into fabricated “Agreements To Sell” with 21 entities in respect of the different land portions; procured negligible advances from them in cash and took cheques as advances in view of the land to be sold, says ED.

But the cheques were never presented to respective banks for clearing purposes. Later, the said “Agreements To Sell” were cancelled and new “Cancellation-Cum-Settlement Agreements” were got prepared to score off the previous deals. A whooping compensation to the extent of six to seven times of the amount as per “Agreements To Sell” was paid.

The compensation was paid through RTGS/ NEFT/ cheques. But these entities paid back the amount in cash which facilitated integration of the “Proceeds of Crime”. Most of these entities were traders of iron and steel products.

The ED claims that then DTCP SS Dhillon didn’t reject Bansal applications despite the fact that there was recommendation to do the same by Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) and Industries department. After the lapse of acquisition proceedings on August 24, 2007, the applications for licences were processed.

The ED conducted raids on premises of seven people on May 25, 2017, including Bansal and a senior Haryana IAS officer, and documents; cash; mobile phones; laptop; jewellery; digital record and locker keys were seized. Also, four properties worth Rs 42.19 crore belonging to Bansal and his wife Sona, including a farm house in Delhi, land in Brahama City Pvt Ltd in Gurugram, and Bengaluru were attached on December 24, 2018.

Properties, cash in banks and sale deeds worth Rs 66.58 crore were attached on July 25, 2019, belonging to the Bansals, Shashikant Chaurasia, Dilip Lalwani, Vijay Uppal, Vinay Uppal and Virendar Uppal and TDI Infrastructure Ltd. Except in case of TDI Infrastructure, the adjudicating authority confirmed the attachment orders.

The CBI is also pursuing Manesar land scam separately where former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is an accused along with 33 others, including firms.