Chandigarh: Elante Mall officials booked for barricading food court entrance

The case was registered following a complaint by Puneet Gupta, a resident of Sector 18-B, Chandigarh, who had taken the food court’s lease from CSJ Infrastructure and also purchased two units at the mall

Police have booked members of Elante Mall’s management after they ordered barricading of the mall’s food court in the wee hours of Saturday following a dispute with its lessee.

The management of Elante Mall barricaded the food court after its lease ended on March 31, even as the lessee had moved court, requesting an extension due to the pandemic and renovations. (HT Photo)

The case was registered following a complaint by Puneet Gupta, a resident of Sector 18-B, who had taken the food court’s lease from CSJ Infrastructure and also purchased two units at the mall.

While no arrests have been made yet, police have taken down the barricades that were set up by the mall officials to block the food court’s entrance on the second floor.

Gupta’s counsel, Rajneesh Sareen, said the nine-year lease for the food court ended on March 31. But Gupta had requested extension in lieu of the time lost due to the Covid-19 pandemic and some renovations. As the mall authorities did not allow it, he had moved court and the matter was still sub-judice.

Gupta alleged that while the mall management had assured him of waiting till a decision by the court, on Thursday night, some officials, including Abhishek Sharma, Nitin, Nitin Chaturvedi, Venkat and Salim Roopani, who is the mall’s director, posted a notice, on the instruction of Nexus Malls CEO Dalip Sehgal, warning him of dire consequences.

A day later, the officials reached the food court in the wee hours of Saturday and ordered barricading of the food court’s entrance without any warning.

Around 10 of his staff members were present inside and were told to leave unless they wanted to be sealed inside with the barricading, he alleged, adding that when he reached the mall around 5 am on Saturday, he was not allowed to enter.

Gupta further alleged that mall officials had been harassing him for the past two months and had also been talking to his tenants to turn them against him, adding that the mall management illegally wanted to take possession of the property.

Following his complaint, police lodged an FIR under Sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code at the Industrial Area police station.

Police officials privy to the investigation said, “The officials named in the complaint are currently absconding. We will carry out our investigation and arrest them.”

The wooden boards installed to barricade the food court’s entrance were taken away as case property.

When contacted, the mall spokespersons refused to comment on the matter.