FIR filed against Medanta chairman on land grabbing case

GURUGRAM: Gurugram Police has registered an FIR against Dr Naresh Trehan, Chairman of Medanta Hospital under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) of Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Certain officials from Haryana Shahri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) have also been booked. The filing of the FIR comes after the direction from the Gurugram District Court where the order was pronounced by Additional Sessions Judge Ashwani Kumar.

The case is related to the acquisition of land for the private super specialty hospital. Based on the formal complaint Dr Naresh Trehan has been charged with money laundering under the Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 463 (false documents), 467 (forgery), 468 (cheating), 471 (usage of forged documents) of the IPC.

Dating back to 2003, the complaints pertain to acquisition of land for building the Medanta Medi-city Hospital. The FIR was registered on a complaint filed by RTI activist Raman Sharma who has alleged that in 2003, the then HSVP had acquired 53 acres of land in Sector 38 of Gurugram for the Medicity project, under which a research centre along with a hospital was to be constructed as well as a place providing shelter to patients and their family members.

However, nothing as per the plan happened and a hospital was built on the land for purely commercial purposes, the complaint said. It is alleged that Dr Naresh Trehan conspired with government officials to acquire this land for building the hospital, causing a huge loss to the State government back then.