The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Tuesday arrested Vikas Verma, son of Girish Verma, a sacked executive officer of the local bodies department, in connection with a disproportionate asset case. A Mohali court granted the VB his remand for 3 days.
A VB spokesperson said Girish Verma and his three accomplices — Sanjiv Kumar of Kharar, coloniser Pawan Kumar Sharma of Panchkula and Kurali ex-municipal councillor Gaurav Gupta — have already been arrested. The case (FIR no. 18) was registered in 2022. The spokesperson said Girish remained posted as executive officer of the municipal councils of Zirakpur, Kharar, Kurali, Derabassi, etc. and used to pass on “wrongful benefits” to the local builders/developers for “monetary benefits”. During investigation, it was found Girish purchased 19 prime residential/commercial properties in the names of his wife Sangeeta Verma and son Vikas Verma, who “did not have any lawful source of income other than the rent from properties purchased using tainted money”.
The spokesperson informed that Vikas Verma became partner in 2019-20 in the real estate firms of Balaji Infra Buildtech and Balaji Developers by “laundering black money” of his father and legitimising it by availing bank entries as unsecured loans from other partners in these firms and returning money to them in cash.
Revealing the modus operandi, he said Vikas Verma’s partners, now co-accused in this case, namely Sanjiv Kumar, Gaurav Gupta and Ashish Sharma, all residents of Kurali, indulged in “fraudulent activities by preparing antedated agreements to sell of plots and getting residential colonies regularised in a clandestine manner”.
{{/usCountry}}Revealing the modus operandi, he said Vikas Verma’s partners, now co-accused in this case, namely Sanjiv Kumar, Gaurav Gupta and Ashish Sharma, all residents of Kurali, indulged in “fraudulent activities by preparing antedated agreements to sell of plots and getting residential colonies regularised in a clandestine manner”.
{{/usCountry}}He added that Gaurav Gupta was founder of these firms and a major partner, having 80 per cent share in Balaji Infra Buildtech that had invested crores of rupees as his shares alongside other partners to purchase agricultural land in Kharar and then “unlawfully got residential colony regularised” on this land. Thereafter, 15 per cent of his share was finally transferred to Vikas Verma, son of Girish Verma.
He informed that anticipatory bail pleas of Vikas were earlier dismissed by the Punjab and Haryana high court. Thereafter, the Mohali court declared him a proclaimed offender. He surrendered before the court following which he was arrested.