ANIL HASIJA Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner seeks grant of regular bail in a case registered against him vide FIR No.230 dtd. 17/9/2021 under Ss. 406, 420, 467, 468, 471/120-B IPC at Police Station Sector 53 Gurugram, District Gurugram.

(2.) The FIR was registered at the instance of Mahender Singh, attorney of Baljeet Singh, who is an allottee of a plot measuring 60 Sq.Yds. in "Economic Weaker Sec. " (EWS) category, situated at Ardee City, Gurugram. The complaint has been lodged against Ardee Infrastructure Private Limited and other licence holding companies for Ardee City, Gurugram; Shibani Kapur Varma, Director Ardee Infrastructure Private Limited; Anil Hasija (petitioner) Vice-President, Ardee Infrastructure Private Limited; and other accused associated with the scam in question. The complainant has alleged that the allottee Baljeet Singh had been allotted a plot measuring 60 square yards in EWS category by Ardee Company in Febraury, 2000. Shibani Kapur Varma being Director was involved in day- to-day business and decision making of the company. Anil Hasija, being Vice President is stated to be fully involved in the deals and business development of the company. It is alleged that the accused had obtained license for development of a project namely Ardee City and as per the mandatory condition of license, they were required to reserve 20 per cent of the area for allotment of plots to people belonging to EWS category. The allottee Baljeet Singh had applied for the same and had deposited an amount of Rs.1200.00 with M/s Ardee Infrastructure. Thereafter, the accused are alleged to have demanded an additional amount of Rs.25,000.00 in cash. However, despite having received the said payment, the accused has not been given any plot till date i.e. more than two decades, although licenses had been obtained between the period from 1995 to 2002. It is alleged that the accused, very cleverly earmarked such land for EWS category plots which was having some kind of defect or was disputed and that while some part of the land earmarked had already been acquired, some part of land was having an underground gas-pipe on account of which construction could not have been raised. It is alleged that the accused had collected huge money from various allottees under EWS category and had usurped the said amount while they were spending hundreds of crores for constructing commercial building namely Ardee Mall and were earning huge profits by allotting plots and flats in the said township while ignoring the economic weaker Sec. .

(3.) The learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that admittedly the licenses for development of the land in question had been issued during the year 1995 to 2002 under provisions of Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act of 1975, when the petitioner was not working as Vice-President and it was only in the year 2009 that he was appointed as Vice-President of the Company. It has further been submitted that at best, it is the Directors of the company who could be held liable for any default in the matter of allotment of plots in the category of EWS and that Vice-President cannot be held responsible in any manner for the same. The learned counsel has submitted that infact land for the purpose of allotment of 104 plots in EWS category is still available and the company is awaiting government's nod for final allotment of the same, which is still awaited.