E-Paper
₹590-crore fraud: Court grants 7-day extension of Wadhwa’s police remand
Vikram Wadhwa, key conspirator in fraud involving accounts of several Haryana government departments, municipal corporation Chandigarh and Chandigarh Renewable Energy and Science & Technology Promotion Society (CREST), was arrested by the Chandigarh police crime branch on March 14 from Kharar
A local court granted Chandigarh police an additional seven-day remand of key conspirator in the ₹590-crore fraud Vikram Wadhwa.
Wadhwa, key conspirator in fraud involving accounts of several Haryana government departments and the ₹190-crore financial irregularities linked to the municipal corporation Chandigarh and Chandigarh Renewable Energy and Science & Technology Promotion Society (CREST), was arrested by the Chandigarh police crime branch on March 14 from Kharar.
Earlier, the court had sent him to 5-day police remand. On the last day of remand --Thursday--he was again presented in the court and his remand was sent to 7-days additional police remand.
Three applications, filed by Wadhwa’s defense counsel, contesting the grounds of arrest, were dismissed by the local court. As per Wadhwa’s counsel advocate Vinay Yadav, they will now approach the Punjab and Haryana high court.
The Chandigarh-based hotelier and real estate developer is originally from Malout. He moved to Chandigarh in the 1990s as a guest house caretaker on a ₹1,500 salary before building a real estate empire. Earlier, during the investigation, the Chandigarh police had recovered a Range Rover allegedly belonging to Wadhwa from a site in Kansal. Over the years, he entered the real estate business and accumulated substantial assets, including residential properties in Sectors 33, 21 and 36 in Chandigarh, and a farmhouse in New Chandigarh.
