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Punjab CLU fraud: ED grills GMADA officials; summons promoter of real estate project
Earlier, the ED had summoned GMADA chief Sandeep Kumar, a 2015-batch IAS officer, or asked the urban development authority to depute a gazetted officer to furnish records
Greater Mohali Area Development Authority’s (GMADA) town planning officials and auditor appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money-laundering investigation into the alleged change of land use (CLU) fraud involving major real estate projects in Punjab.
The agency is probing alleged irregularities in CLU licences granted to projects linked with Suntec City and Altus Space Builders Private Limited.
The federal agency has also summoned Ajay Sehgal, one of the promoters of Suntec City project.
Earlier, the ED had summoned GMADA chief Sandeep Kumar, a 2015-batch IAS officer, or asked the urban development authority to depute a gazetted officer to furnish records and a list of officials concerned involved in the approval and clearing of the projects. It also sought details of all the transactions between Altus Space and the urban development authority.
“On the basis of this record, we are registering the statements of GMADA’s town planning department. We have been looking into how these real estate companies managed money trails by selling plots on the basis of fake CLUs and other documents to gullible persons,” he said.
Earlier on May 8 and 9, the ED conducted searches on the premises linked to Ajay Sehgal, ABS Townships, Altus Space Builders, Dhir Constructions and their associates. The agency reportedly recovered nearly ₹1 crore during the raids.
During the searches, ED officials also recovered ₹21 lakh allegedly thrown from the ninth floor of Western Towers in Kharar by persons linked to the accused. The searches also targeted alleged middlemen Nitin Gohal and Pritpal Singh Dhindsa.
The ED case stems from two Punjab Police FIRs registered against Suntec city directors and promoter in 2022 at Mullanpur police station, while the second FIR was registered against directors of Altus Space at Phase-11 police station in 2024 for forging consent letters of landowners to obtain CLU approvals for their respective projects.
