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Ambience Mall case: CBI raids chairman’s office
The agency has acted on the orders of Punjab and Haryana high court, which last month asked it to probe the irregularities.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday conducted raids at the premises of Raj Singh Gehlot, chairman of realty firm Ambience Group, and others after registering a case in the alleged illegal conversion of residential land to raise the swanky Ambience Mall in Gurugram, officials said.
The agency has acted on the orders of Punjab and Haryana high court, which last month asked it to probe the irregularities.
CBI Spokesperson R K Gaur said, “The case is related to alleged illegal construction of commercial building at approximately 18.98 acres of land in Gurugram by blatantly flouting the building by-laws and statutory provisions in collusion with others.”
Those named in CBI FIR include Raj Singh Gehlot, and companies Ambience Ltd and Ambience Developers and Infrastructure besides unidentified officials of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and Town and Country Planning (TCP) departments.
The raids were carried out at Gehlot’s residence in Hauz Khas, company’s office at Green Park, HUDA office in Panchkula and TCP office in Sector 18, Chandigarh.
A spokesperson for the Ambience Group refused to comment.
The high court had sought a separate investigation by the CBI to probe alleged illegal actions, if any, and possible collusion between the builder and state authorities.
The Ambience Group runs Ambience Malls in NCR and luxury hotel The Leela Ambience Convention Centre in east Delhi among other real estate properties.
The petitioners in the case had alleged before the high court that 18.98 acres of land on Delhi-Jaipur National Highway in Gurugram earmarked for Ambience Lagoon Island Residential Complex was reduced to just 7.9 acres and a commercial complex was built on the remaining land. It was further alleged that such violation of the builder-buyer agreement and provisions of Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Area Act, 1975 was not possible without the collusion of officials and builders.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had raided Ambience Group and Raj Singh Gehlot on July 31 in a separate case of money laundering against a company run by Gehlots – Aman Hospitality Pvt Ltd.
