The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has moved a Kharar civil court seeking directions to the Mohali police to register an FIR against five persons associated with Altus Space Builders Private Limited and Dhir Constructions over alleged fraudulent change of land use (CLU) in real-estate projects in Mullanpur, New Chandigarh.
The move came after the ED allegedly received no response from the Mohali police to its repeated requests for registration of an FIR. The court also directed Mullanpur SHO to file a status report on the complaint, if any, pending with him. Both the Mohali SSP and the Mullanpur SHO have also been made respondents in the petition. The central agency has been looking into alleged irregularities in CLU approvals for major real-estate projects in Punjab. The agency has already arrested Ajay Sehgal, the director of Suntec City, another real estate company in May, while questioning Punjab-cadre senior IAS officers Anurag Verma, a former chief secretary, and Kanwal Preet Brar on multiple occasions.
The central agency filed the petition under Section 175(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which empowers a judicial magistrate to order a police investigation into a cognisable offence. The ED stated that it had sent repeated emails and communications with the Mohali SSP, seeking an FIR, the first being sent on July 1 following searches at the premises of Altus Space and Dhir Constructions on May 7. It stated that reminders were sent to the SSP on July 21, August 14, August 24 and August 25, but no response was received. After the SSP failed to appear before the agency at its Jalandhar regional office on September 10, the ED approached the court, it was stated. The court specifically directed the report to state whether the complaint dated July 1 was received at the SSP’s office, its present status, the action taken on it, if any, and the stage at which the complaint is pending, including the authority or official with whom it is currently pending. Both respondents have been directed to ensure that their respective reports are furnished before the court on or before the next date of hearing, September 25. The ED’s probe stems from an FIR registered on February 1, 2024, at Phase 11 police station in Mohali under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against Altus Space Builders Private Limited and its directors, including Mohinder Singh, Harpreet Singh Sran, Jaswinder Singh, Herdev Singh Sran and Narinder Singh.
Its investigation found that multiple buyers had approached forums including Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), local police and consumer courts, alleging that Altus Space had represented that its project had obtained a final CLU from the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), according to the ED. Multiple homebuyers were allegedly induced to purchase units in Altus’s ‘Millennium Court’ project at Nagiari village in Mohali on the representation that the project had obtained a final CLU from GMADA, according to the FIR. In its latest order on Friday, the court of judicial magistrate first class directed the Mohali SSP to submit a status report on the complaint.
