The police on Wednesday registered a case against the owners of PVR Malls, acting on a complaint filed by real estate company DLF that it had been cheated out of `280 crore in a construction deal. In a complaint filed with the Central Crime Station (CCS), DLF alleged that PVR Mall owners cheated it by way of a partnership deal relating to construction activity. Police have registered a cheating case against Gauri Shankar Gupta and eight others and issued a look-out notice for them to foil any attempt to flee the country. They also set up six teams to nab the accused.
According to the complainant, Gupta lured DLF with the promise of investment in a land development project and fraudulently appropriated nearly `280 crore. The deal was struck in 2005 when Gupta’s SBPL Infrastructure Ltd approached DLF to invest in a 5.24 acre piece of land that SBPL claimed to own at Lower Tank Bund. “SBPL, however, did not own the land but only had an agreement with M/s India Services Pvt Ltd for developing it. SBPL later entered into an agreement with DLF to jointly develop the property and took `11 crore as advance,’’ CCS assistant commissioner of police K V Ramnarsimha Reddy said.
As security, SBPL pledged the original title deeds of an apartment at Banjara Hills. The project, however, did not take off and Gupta approached DLF again with some fresh offers.
“Gupta told DLF that he was able to secure the development rights to the 5.61 acre Gandhi Medical College in the name of three of his companies. The consortium was required to form a SPV in the name of GSG Constructions Pvt Ltd and DLF was asked to join the project by investing 50 per cent of the project cost,’’ the FIR filed by the police in court said.
Asked to furnish `43 crore as security deposit, DLF paid the money in three instalments between October 2006 and January 2007 and an MoU was signed between the two companies.
“GSG Constructions told DLF that it was entitled to enter into an MoU (with another company) and discharge its obligations. However, DLF later found that the terms and conditions laid down in the allotment letter issued by the state government to GSG stipulated that the allotted venture partners or successful bidders could neither substitute any other person or company on the whole or part of the project land,’’ the FIR said.
Even as DLF grew suspicious about the accused due to the retention or misappropriation of its advance amounts, the accused came up with yet another proposal. Gupta, through SBPL, proposed various real estate projects including development of a 63-acre piece of land at Katedan, 26 acres at Kukatpally and 78 acres at Jubilee Hills, it is learnt.
“It also said that SBPL is part of a consortium that bid for various lands of National Textile Corporation in Mumbai and was also likely to get two plots at Gold Mohar Hills and Apollo Mills. It sought an advance of Rs 51 crore from DLF to develop these lands and the latter paid the amount. Another `50 cr was taken for a project in Mumbai,’’ police said. DLF representative Suresh Krishna, who filed a complaint with the police on Feb. 4, said the accused took nearly `280 cr from them.
Meanwhile, when DLF tried to mortgage the Banjara Hills property pledged as security, it came to know that the accused had already sold some of the property. Another case also been registered against the accused in this regard on Jan. 28.
