E-Paper
Chandigarh: Parking contractor accused of ₹7-crore fraud denied bail
The parking firm was awarded the contract of 57 Zone-2 parking lots in 2020 that got over in January this year; but the firm failed to pay licence fee worth ₹7 crore to MC
A local court has dismissed the bail application of Sanjay Sharma, director of Paschatya Entertainment Private Limited, who is accused of providing forged bank guarantees to the municipal corporation worth crores for a parking contract.
The firm was awarded the contract of 57 Zone-2 parking lots in 2020 that got over in January this year. But the firm failed to pay licence fee worth ₹7 crore to MC, following which the civic body approached the bank concerned to recover the money through bank guarantees submitted by the contractor.
It was then found that three guarantees for ₹1.65 crore each were fake. Subsequently, a cheating case was registered against the firm’s directors Sanjay Sharma and Lalita Sharma.
On March 7, police arrested Sanjay from his office in Delhi. This was followed by the arrest of Ravi Chandra Prakash, the then bank officer of Syndicate Bank, Delhi, for issuing forged bank guarantees, and Anil’s accountant Ajay Kumar of Delhi. On March 23, Anil Kumar, the parking firm’s contractor, also surrendered.
As the court took up Sanjay’s bail plea, the public prosecutor, JP Singh, pleaded that the investigation of the case was in the initial stage. “Sanjay deposited three fake bank guarantees with Chandigarh municipal corporation. The total amount of fraud is of ₹7 crore. He will not appear in court if released on bail and can run away to avoid legal proceedings,” the public prosecutor argued.
Looking at the gravity of allegations quo cheating and forgery levelled by the complainant and involvement of huge amounts in crores, the prosecution requested that the bail application may be dismissed. Hence, the court dismissed the bail plea, along with that of Ravi Chandra.
