Senior vice president of realty firm Earth Infra arrested for fraud in Noida

Police said that the accused, Amit Satija, has been involved in a fraudulent case involving crores of rupees and as many as 1,200 homebuyers.

A crime branch team on Sunday arrested Amit Satija, the senior vice president of Earth Iconic Infrastructure Private Limited, in connection with a fraud perpetrated against buyers of Earth Titanium project in Greater Noida.

Amit Satija (right), senior vice president of Earth Iconic Infrastructure Private Limited, falsely assured buyers of a 12% return if the buyer paid the total amount in advance. (HT Photo)

Satija was arrested by a special team of the Noida Crime Branch, when he had come to Noida for a work-related meeting. Scores of homebuyers have alleged that Satija had sold them flats in an unfinished Ansal Builders project through dubious means, and falsely promised them ‘assured returns’. The police said that the accused has been involved in a fraudulent case involving crores of rupees and as many as 1,200 homebuyers. According to the police, he has been booked under the Indian Penal Code sections 420, 406, 463, 468, 471, 504, 506 and 120B for cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery, forgery for purpose of cheating, using a forged document as genuine, intentional insult, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy.

“We have arrested Satija based on a first information report lodged against him at the Sector 20 police station. Acting on a tip-off, we picked him up from his Noida office. He has been accused of selling studio apartments and other flats in an unfinished project belonging to Ansal IT City and Parks Limited to buyers through dubious means. He had also assured them of a 12% return if the buyer paid the total amount in advance,” Ashok Kumar, superintendent of police (crime), said.

“Earth Iconic Infrastructures Limited was given the task to complete the project by 2016 on two conditions. One, that the entire cost be taken up by the group, and two, the flats will be leased to people only from IT industry. However, Satija and his company started leasing unfinished studio apartments/other flats to all types of buyers under the fake assurance of a 12% cash return if the buyer paid the entire amount in advance. They took all the money even before starting the project, and till date, the company neither completed the project nor gave anyone the ‘assured return’,” Harsh Thapa, a homebuyer of Earth Titanium Project, said.

The police said that four directors of Earth Iconic Infrastructures Limited, namely Atul Gupta, Vikas Gupta, Avdhesh Gupta and Rajneesh Mittal, are currently in Tihar jail for different cases of fraud registered against the company in the past three or four years. Bushra Aslam, the associate vice president of the company, was also arrested in a fraud case in 2017 and later released on bail.