Chandigarh, July 24: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) announced on Wednesday that it has filed a prosecution complaint against colonizer Ajay Sehgal in a special court in Mohali. He is accused of laundering money derived from crime by obtaining a change of land use (CLU) approval based on forged consent letters.
The ED initiated its investigation following an FIR registered by the Punjab Police against Sehgal and others.
An inquiry under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) revealed that Sehgal, the secretary of the Indian Cooperative House Building Society Limited, submitted fake consent letters to the Punjab Town and Country Planning Department. This was done to convert 108.58 acres of agricultural land into residential and commercial plots for the ‘Suntek City’ project.
Based on the CLU obtained through these forged documents, the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) issued a license for the project’s development. The ED also stated that they obtained registration for the project under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) using the fraudulent consent letters.
Additionally, it was discovered that Sehgal failed to transfer land reserved for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) to GMADA’s estate officer as per the license conditions. Furthermore, he began selling units in the project before receiving RERA registration and granted possession to landowners without obtaining a completion certificate from GMADA.
The investigation also revealed that the building plan and CLU were illegally approved without a solid waste management area, which is required under building plan rule 3.12.2 (Internal Development Works).
The PMLA investigation uncovered an agreement between the Indian Cooperative House Building Society Limited and ABS Townships Private Limited, which transferred all development and sales rights of the project to ABS Townships. The directors of ABS Townships include Sehgal’s brothers, Sanjay Sehgal and Anil Sehgal.
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