Allahabad high court refuses bail plea of builder accused of fraud

The Allahabad high court rejected the bail plea of Sidharth Katyal, senior vice president, Earth Infrastructure Limited, on February 22, much to the relief of many homebuyers in Noida.

The Allahabad high court rejected the bail plea of Sidharth Katyal, senior vice president, Earth Infrastructure Limited, on February 22, much to the relief of many homebuyers in Noida.

A site of Techone project in Greater Noida. Earth Infrastructure Limited has failed to deliver realty projects in Greater Noida.

Katyal is accused of committing fraud against many homebuyers. The Uttar Police had on January 10, arrested Katyal in Varanasi under cheating and fraud charges. Rejecting the bail Justice Arvind Kumar Mishra said in the judgement.“No good ground is made out for bail. Accordingly, the bail application is rejected at this stage”.

The court observed the applicant being the senior vice president had worked to induce the public to invest money in the company concerned and cannot deny his officiating capacity at Earth Infrastructure Limited.

“Six accused have been named in this complaint and ₹15,500 crore have been misappropriated by the applicant in connivance with others and ₹23,00,00,000 ( ₹23 crore) has been syphoned by the applicant from Earth Infrastructure Ltd. to the companies, namely Comfort Zone Infratech (India) Pvt. Ltd. and Tan Infratech (India) Pvt. Ltd. for the same period of time during which money was obtained by the applicant,” read the court order.

On January 20, Allahabad high court had also rejected the bail plea of Amit Satija, vice president, Earth Infrastructure Private Limited. Satija and Katyal including others are accused of cheating the buyers.

“ Since the court has rejected the bail plea and the police also has got evidence against the promoters we hope all buyers will get justice soon,” Harsh Thapar, a homebuyer, said.

In 2016, over 30 homebuyers had filed FIRs against the sister company, Earth Incom Infra promoters in Noida’s Sector 20 police station and Greater Noida’s Bisrakh police station for cheating. Following the FIRs, the crime branch of Gautam Budh Nagar police started its investigation against the firm’s promoters

Delhi Police’s economic offences wing (EOW) has also been probing a case against the promoters of Earth Infrastructure Limited — Vikas Gupta, Rajnish Gupta, Atul Gupta and Avdhesh Kumar Goel — since February 2017. Four directors are in Tihar jail since their arrest, said police officials. Satija and another associate Mukul Garg are in judicial custody of the Uttar Pradesh police. One director Ratan Vijayvargiya is at large and the police are on the lookout for him.