GURUGRAM: A case of cheating has been registered against the directors of Emaar India for allegedly selling a plot originally earmarked as a green belt to a developer to build a school.
Polestar Private Ltd lodged the complaint against Emaar at Sector 65 police station around a month ago. It was sold a 1.2-acre plot in Heritage One society in Sector 62.
According to the complaint filed by DK Sharma, the director of Polestar Pvt Ltd, Emaar India approached them with an offer to sell the Sector 62 plot. Emaar allegedly made specific representations that the plot was approved by the town and country planning department in Chandigarh for use as a primary school.
Calls and messages to Emaar India did not elicit any response.
Polestar claimed it paid Rs 8.1 crore for the plot. However, when the company submitted its layout for a primary school to the DTCP in Jan, they came to know the land was actually a green belt.
“They provided us with copies of the licence (dated May 14, 2010) issued by the DTCP Chandigarh, the approved site plan of the colony showing the location of the said plot, and the ‘request for extension of time’ till May 13, 2025, submitted to the DTCP Chandigarh on April 8, 2022, via an email on August 30, 2022. In the request, the name of the site was stated as ‘Primary School, Sector 62, Gurugram’. However, on May 6, Amit Chhabra from Emaar shared a copy of the site plan, which now shows that the plot sold to us was actually approved for use as a green area,” Sharma wrote in his complaint with the economic offences wing (EOW).
Sharma said they agreed to go ahead with the deal following Emaar’s representations about the land. “They said they have been paying the requisite licence fee for the same, which stood paid till April 8, 2022. After they handed us over the possession letter of the plot, we incurred an added loss of Rs 57 lakh towards stamp duty payable on the conveyance deed,” he wrote in his complaint.
“In an email we received from them on May 1, they admitted their culpability but tried to shift the burden onto their other contractors and developers, trying to colour the entire issue as a ‘civil dispute’. They also started imputing motives on us for raising the issue of having been cheated,” Sharma said.
An FIR was lodged against Mohamed Ali Rashed Alabbar, the director of Emaar India, under IPC sections 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) on Sunday.
“The accused might flee the country as Emaar is an international company. We request police to seize their passports and issue a lookout notice until the investigation is complete,” Sharma said on Tuesday.
Sandeep Kumar, a spokesperson for Gurgaon police, said, “We will be calling them for revenue records from the DTCP in Chandigarh. The case will be probed in keeping with the rules.”
