Ambience Mall : CBI raids 4 locations over ‘illegal’ use of land
New Delhi, Aug. 10 : The CBI on Monday conducted searches at four locations after filing a case of alleged illegal conversion of residential land to raise the swanky Ambience Mall in Gurgaon against the company chairman, Raj Singh Gehlot, and others, officials said.
The agency registered the FIR on the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which had termed the mall illegal and handed over the probe to the central agency. The CBI has booked Chairman and Managing Director of the Ambience group Raj Singh Gehlot and companies Ambience Ltd and Ambience Developers and Infrastructure besides unidentified officials of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and Town and Country Planning (TCP) departments.
“The case is related to alleged illegal construction of commercial building at approximately 18.98 acre of land in Gurugram (Gurgaon, Haryana) by blatantly flouting the building bylaws and statutory provisions in collusion with others,” CBI Spokesperson RK Gaur said.
The searches are spread at the residence of Gehlot in Hauz Khas, company office at Green Park in Delhi, HUDA office in Panchkula and TCP office in Sector 18, Chandigarh.
The high court had sought a separate investigation by the CBI to probe alleged illegal actions, if any, and possible collusion between the builder and state authorities.
The Ambience group runs Ambience Malls in NCR and luxury hotel The Leela Ambience Convention Centre among other such real estate properties.
The petitioners had alleged before the high court that 18.98 acres of land on Delhi-Jaipur National Highway in Gurgaon earmarked for Ambience Lagoon Island Residential Complex was reduced to just 7.9 acres with a commercial complex erected on the remaining land.
They had alleged that such violation of the builder-buyer agreement and provisions of Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Area Act, 1975 was not possible without the collusion of officials and builders.