2024-08-30 14:10:29
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized more than 401 acres of land belonging to Emaar India Limited and MGF Developments Limited. Its value is said to be around Rs 834 crore. Of these, land worth Rs 501.13 crore belongs to Emaar while the rest worth Rs 332.69 crore belongs to MGF Developments. This land is in Gurugram district of Haryana and 20 villages in Delhi. The ED is investigating Emaar India and MGF Developments in a case of alleged money laundering related to the license obtained from the Town and Country Planning Department (TDCP) of Haryana for the development of residential plotted colonies in Sector 65 and 66 of Gurugram. In the same case, the ED had seized land worth Rs 300 crore of M3M Infra Private Limited in Gurgaon in July. In this way, the ED has so far seized land worth Rs 1,134 crore in this case.
The agency began its investigation following an FIR filed by the CBI against former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, former DTCP director Trilok Chand Gupta, Emaar MGF Land Ltd and 14 other coloniser companies. The case pertains to cheating farmers, common people, Haryana government and HUDA by getting a notification issued under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (LA Act). It is alleged that farmers were forced to sell their land at a price lower than the prevailing rate before the notification was issued under section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act. The ED further alleged that the accused parties fraudulently and dishonestly obtained letters of intent (LOI) and licences on notified land. This caused loss to farmers, public and the state government.
2,000 housing projects are stalled across the country, the future of more than 5 lakh flats is in limbo
what is the matter
The Haryana government had issued a notification under Section 4 of the LA Act in June 2009 on 1417.07 acres of land in Sectors 58 to 63 and 65 to 67 in Gurugram. Subsequently, notification under Section 6 was issued on about 850.10 acres of the 1417.07 acres of land on May 31, 2010. In April 2009, Emaar MGF Land, a joint venture of Emaar Properties PJSC, Dubai and MGF Developments Limited, had applied for LC-1 for 112.46 acres to obtain a license to develop a residential plotted colony in Sectors 65 and 66 of Gurugram. Subsequently, 70.406 acres of land notified under Section 4 was exempted from acquisition proceedings by DTCP and after internal consent of Haryana Government, LOI for 108.006 acres of land was granted to the Company in May 2010.
The license was granted to Emaar MGF Land in November 2019. The ED has claimed that its investigation revealed that Emaar MGF Land had executed six ante-dated development agreements with farmers for 27.306 acres of land. The company claimed that these agreements were executed in April 2009 while they were actually executed in March 2010. Despite the separation of the two companies, Emaar India has a 60 per cent stake in Emaar MGF Land and MGF has a 40 per cent stake.