21 , July , 2024
The ED has attached land in Gurugram, worth over Rs 300 crore of real estate group M3M as part of a money laundering probe linked to an alleged land fraud case that also involves Congress leader and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. To attach the land, a provisional order was issued by the federal probe agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The 88.29 acres of land is in Basharia village of Harsaru tehsil in Haryana's Gurugram district that borders Delhi.
The land is valued at Rs 300.11 crore, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said in a statement. In a statement, a spokesperson of the real estate group said they were "highly disappointed with the highly unwarranted, unjustified and uncalled for action by the ED, to provisionally attach its land asset which is in no way connected with any offence and under no circumstances can be placed in the purview of proceeds of crime as understood under the PMLA."
The money laundering case stems from a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR that was filed against Hooda, the leader of opposition in the Haryana assembly; former director of the Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP), Trilok Chand Gupta; realty group R S Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. (RSIPL); and 14 other coloniser companies. It was alleged that people, including landowners, the state of Haryana and then Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) were cheated by the accused, the ED said. The HUDA has been renamed as the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran. The ED said the accused cheated them by getting notifications issued under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, and subsequently also under its section 6 to acquire lands of the respective landowners.
This "compelled" them to sell their land to the coloniser companies at a lower price than the prevailing price, the agency said. The accused, according to the agency, "fraudulently and dishonestly" obtained Letter of Intents (LOIs) or licenses on the notified land, causing loss to the landowners and the state of Haryana but got wrongful gains for themselves.
The ED said RSIPL, a company "beneficially owned" by M3M group promoters Basant Bansal and Roop Bansal, "colluded" with those mentioned in the FIR and "unlawfully" got approved licenses for 10.35 acres of land for establishing a commercial colony by classifying their case as an instance of "extreme hardship", without legal basis.
"Upon securing licenses to establish a commercial colony, the promoters of RSIPL did not develop a commercial colony which was a precondition for obtaining the licenses," it claimed.
The M3M said it was "disquieting to note that the huge investments by the company in the land in question where the residential/commercial project is likely to be set up has been ignored." "The potential of the project which would generate employment for thousands of families has also been kept at bay. The action of ED therefore, in attaching the asset is neither warranted in law nor tenable in equity and justice," the company's spokesperson said. The statement said the company has done its business in "a most transparent and lawful manner within the rules and forms of law." "The accusations are apparently mis-founded and misconstrued and the transactions that have taken place have been misinterpreted and blown out of proportions," the spokesperson said in the statement.
The ED said the accused sold the company, its shares and assets, including the said licensed land for a "staggering" sum of Rs 726 crore to Lowe Realty Private Limited, an associated entity of the Religare Group. "This fraudulent activity of obtaining the said licenses illegally has resulted in the generation of proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 300.15 crore which were subsequently diverted from RSIPL to the promoters of RSIPL into their bank accounts and to the bank accounts of their family members," the agency alleged. These funds, the ED said, were subsequently utilised for operational and business expenses of M3M group companies.
(WITH INPUTS TAKEN FROM PTI)
