The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth Rs 66.57 crore in the Manesar Land Scam under Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The attached assets consisting of 14.56 acres of land at Gurgaon (valued at Rs 43.54 crore) belongs to Mahamaya Exports Pvt. Ltd., and 4 acres of land and bank balances worth Rs 23.03 crore of other accused persons.
ED initiated investigation under the provisions of PMLA, on the basis of an FIR registered initially by Gurgaon police under IPC sections related to cheating, criminal conspiracy and forgery besides provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Subsequently the case was transferred to CBI for investigation against unknown public servants of Government of Haryana and unknown private persons.
The Government of Haryana had issued notification under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 on August 27 and had issued notification to the effect on August 25 for acquisition of land measuring about 912 acres for setting up an Industrial Model Township in villages Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula of Gurgaon district.
A large number of land owners, in haste, had to sell about 400 acres of their land at throwaway price to private builders and thereby caused a wrongful loss of Rs 1,500 crore to the land owners of Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula villages and corresponding wrongful gains to the realtors.
“Investigations under PMLA revealed that the private builders, to whom the licences were granted, made wrongful gain by conspiring with the public servants of Haryana Government and politicians, who were involved in decision making for release of land,” the ED said in a statement. Most of the land was purchased by ABWIL Group controlled by Atul Bansal. After obtaining the licences, ABWIL had fraudulently sold the licenced/ unlicensed land and licences to the private persons/ developers, making huge profit, the agency said.
Proceeds of crime consists of 14.56 acres of land of Mahamaya Exports Pvt. Ltd in which Atul Bansal and Sona Bansal hold 74 per cent of shares and four acres of land and balances in the bank account of other accused persons were provisionally attached under PMLA. Earlier in this case, assets worth Rs 42.19 crore were attached.