NEW DELHI: The High Court of Punjab and Haryana has quashed the FIR filed by Gurgaon police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) against Emaar India, the local arm of Dubai’s EmaarProperties, and international property consultant JLL India.
Following the direction of a Gurgaon court, the local police had filed a case of undervaluation of land and other charges of committing fraud.
“Having found that the allegations levelled in the complaint do not satisfy the ingredients of criminal offences alleged and having found that the complaint is an abuse of process of law, present case is a case of exercise of jurisdiction under Section 482 of the code. Contents of the complaint do not constitute cognizable offence and thus the impugned order passed by Magistrate is set aside. Consequential FIR registered qua present petitioners are hereby quashed,” the High Court has said in the order.
According to the complaint filed by MGF, in 2019, Emaar appointed JLL as an independent valuer arbitrarily and forged the reports pertaining to the demerged assets in conspiracy with JLL to decrease the value of MGF’s land and inflate the value of Emaar’s claim to unjustly enrich themselves.
“We welcome the HC’s decision to dismiss the unsubstantiated allegations against Emaar India by our former partner. As a responsible corporate entity, Emaar India upholds the highest ethical standards of business conduct. These allegations were futile attempts to tarnish our reputation,” said an Emaar Spokesperson.
The case revolves around accusations of undervaluing assets and fraudulent practices during the demerger of Emaar MGF Land Limited (EMGF).
Emaar Properties, which had entered India in 2005 with the largest FDI in the real estate sector, had invested about Rs 8,500 crore in the Indian real estate market through its joint venture, Emaar MGF Land.
In April 2016, Emaar decided to end this joint venture, and two months later, Shravan Gupta, the then executive vice chairman and managing director of the joint venture, resigned from the post. The demerger was finally approved in July 2018.
The main allegations are that local political leaders, including Gopal Kanda and his brother Gobind Kanda, have been supporting the encroachments through their political clout.
