by THO
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached immovable properties spread over 88 acres and valued at about ₹300 crore belonging to real estate developer M3M India Infrastructure Private Ltd under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
An ED statement said that these properties are in the form of land parcels located in Basharia village of Harsaru tehsil in Gurugram. The agency in its statement said that they had initiated investigation on the basis of a 2019 first information report registered by Central Bureau of Investigation under sections of Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act against the then chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the then director town and country planning and 15 real estate development companies including RS Infrastructure Pvt Ltd. However, Hooda and the then director town and country planning were not arraigned as accused in the chargesheet filed by the CBI in a Panchkula court in 2021.
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“The case involved cheating various landowners, the public at large and the state of Haryana, by issuing a notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act and subsequently under Section 6 of Act for the acquisition of lands of respective landowners which compelled landowners to sell their land to the said coloniser companies at a lower price than the prevailing price. Additionally, they fraudulently and dishonestly obtained Letter of Intents / licenses on the notified land, causing loss to the respective landowners, the public at large, and Haryana government, while wrongfully gaining for themselves,’’ the ED statement said.
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The ED investigation revealed that RS Infrastructure Private Limited, a company beneficially owned by Basant Bansal and Roop Bansal, the promoters of M3M group, colluded with the persons mentioned in the FIR and unlawfully got approved licenses for land measuring 10.35 acres for establishing a commercial colony by classifying their case as “a case of extreme hardship” without legal basis. Upon securing licenses to establish a commercial colony, the promoters of RS Infrastructure did not develop a commercial colony which was a precondition for obtaining the licenses, the ED said.
The ED added that RS Infrastructure later sold the company’s shares and assets, including the said licensed land, for a staggering sum of ₹726 crore to Lowe Realty Private Limited, an associated entity of Religare Group.
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“This fraudulent activity of obtaining the said licenses illegally has resulted in generation of proceeds of crime to the tune of ₹300 crore, which were subsequently diverted from RS Infrastructure to the promoters of RS Infrastructure into their bank accounts and to the bank accounts of their family members and subsequently utilised for operational and business expenses of M/s M3M group companies,” the ED said in a statement.
