Manesar land scam: Buyers want Haryana govt to take over ABW project

The plot and home buyers of ABW Aditya Niketan, a 104-acre project in Manesar, have demanded action by the Haryana government against the developer for committing fraud.

The buyers and allottees of residential and commercial projects on about 200 acres of land in Manesar are a worried lot after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a charge sheet against the projects’ developers.

The site where the ABW Aditya Niketan project was proposed to come up. (Source: buyers’ society)

The buyers now want the state government to take over the project. “Our appeal to the state government is to take over the project and construct it for the buyers. We are ready to cooperate with the government,” said Naresh Jindal, president of ABW Manesar Allottee Welfare Society.

The CBI on Friday filed an 80,000-page charge sheet before a special court in Panchkula, naming former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, three former senior government officers and executives of realty companies among the 34 accused in the Manesar land scam.

The plot and home buyers of ABW Aditya Niketan, a 104-acre project in Manesar, have demanded action by the Haryana government against the developer for committing fraud.

“We had expected that the developer would come out clean in the (CBI) inquiry. Now, we are disappointed as we have lost everything. We are as affected as the farmers,” said Jindal. He said the developer, ABW Infrastructure Limited sold the project from 2009 to 2011 and the units were to be delivered within three years from 2011.

“Not a single brick has been put on the site as the farmers went to court. The developer had collected Rs 800 crore from the buyers,” Jindal said. There are a total of 1,976 allottees for several projects and the buyers have made 20-90% payment.

Jindal said there were 1,300 residential units and several shops and commercial units in the project. A mall named City Centre was also slated to come up at the site.

“We are hopeful as the Punjab and Haryana high court gave judgment in favour of allottees. We have faith in the Supreme Court,” said TS Rawat, general secretary of the society. Rawat added that the government was working for the welfare of buyers and they were hopeful of achieving positive results.

The Manesar farmers had appealed against land acquisition in the high court in 2011, demanding quashing of the land deal. The petition was dismissed in December 2015 after which the farmers went to the Supreme Court where the decision is pending. The state government handed over the matter to the CBI in 2016.

Atul Bansal, managing director of ABW Infrastructure Company, could not be contacted for comment over phone. Ravi Shankar Mandlay, one of the directors of ABW infrastructure limited, said: “We haven’t seen the charge sheet yet and do not know what charges are levelled. We will decide on future course of action after seeing documents.”