Real estate company MD booked for alleged fraud

The managing director of real estate company Vigneshwara Group and two of his family members have been booked by Gurgaon Police in a multi-crore fraud case. Some estimates put the scale of the fraud at more than Rs 1,000 crore.

Despite taking money from around 700 investors for properties in and around Gurgaon in 2006-07, and promising assured returns till possession, the group allegedly didn’t begin construction of some projects and defaulted on payments to investors.

An FIR was filed at Sushant Lok police station against group MD Sunil Dahiya, his brother Sanjay and father Daryav Singh. Dahiya hasn’t been taken into custody yet because he complained of illness and was hospitalized.

Dahiya and the others have been accused of putting out misleading advertisements promising 12% returns on investment in under-construction properties at Gurgaon’s Sector 74 and IMT Manesar.

Geetha Venkatesan, one of the 38 investors in Vigneshwara projects who filed the complaint, alleged she had not received payments since last month and that cheques issued by the company had bounced. She also alleged that the project at IMT Manesar, which started in 2006-07, was just 20% complete while the one at Sector 74 was yet to take off.

“The three were booked under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (breach of trust), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intent) of the IPC,” Sushant Lok police station officer Naresh Kumar said. “We have served notices on all the accused to join investigations but the main accused said he was unwell and was admitted to hospital for treatment. Police will detain him soon.”

Ram Singh, another complainant, made similar accusations against Vigneshwara. Kiran Kumar, also an investor and a complainant, said, “We were assured that the money will be returned by May 20 but the promise was not fulfilled.”

The case was registered after investors protested at the realtor’s office in Sector 52.