The hearing in connection of the bail application of Rajneesh Mittal, one of the directors of a real estate company Earth Infrastructures Ltd (EIL), was adjourned again on Friday in CMM court.
The application will now be heard on September 12. Earlier in June, his bail application was rejected by the session's court.
The three directors of EIL namely, Avdesh Kumar Goel, Rajneesh Mittal and Atul Gupta are in judicial custody for offences like cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy under Sections 406, 409, 120 B and 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The Delhi Police has still not been able to apprehend the fourth Director Vikas Gupta, who has been absconding for a long time and will be declared a proclaimed offender if he does not surrender himself in court or otherwise by September 20.
Representatives of different buyers associations were present in the court today with their counsel to oppose the bail application.
In what appears to be one of the biggest real estate scams in India, multiple FIRs have been filed in different parts of country against the directors and its sales agents.
Total four FIRs have been registered in the economic offences wing of the Delhi Police against the directors of Earth Infrastructures Ltd., who are reported to have misappropriated thousands of crores of the buyers' hard earned money.
The company had started almost 11 projects between the period 2010 and 2014 and none of the projects have been completed so far.
Even in some projects, no construction has started yet. According to reports, more than 4000 crores were collected from about 10,000 buyers for different projects in Greater Noida, Lucknow and Gurugram.
Spokesperson of the Earth Victims Association Shashank Raghav said, "It is necessary in a scam of such huge proportions like this Earth Infrastructure scam, that all the directors and accused persons should join the investigations before things go any further."
Since there is no senior management, now the company is being run by the families of the directors, who are also shareholders of the company but not experienced and capable of corporate management.
The different buyers associations associated with the project are at their wits end and unable to get any concrete proposal from the EIL management which appears not to be chastised still after the mammoth fallout of what appears to be the biggest real estate scam in Indian real estate history.
Several fund raisers and project contractors are still interested to invest in the incomplete projects but the company is not allowing buyers associations to meet them directly, which is also creating lots of confusion and mismanagement.
The company has created a complex web of over 100 subsidiary companies, land owning companies etc. in some of which their wives are also prominent players. The buyers complain that the wives should also be interrogated to know the money trail. The buyers' problems are further complicated because the information gathered by authorities are not being shared with the buyers which would have allowed them to carry forward the project analysis and way forward for a solution to the buyers' suffering.
The Earth saga has all the makings of a Bollywood potboiler with money laundered abroad, ladies employed to persuade buyers with false promises, non- payment by builders of government dues, political players trying to bail out the builders, and unscrupulous directors, who still cling on to their properties acquired illegally through diversion of public money.
Surprisingly, the Government of India or the anti-money laundering authority has still not initiated any solid action like forensic audit into the affairs of the company even though they have been requested to do so.
Ex-army officer Hardeep Chowdhary said, "People have put in their life savings into the company relying on their bogus promises and actions devoid of any honest intentions. They are suffering because of gross misappropriation of their money by the directors for their personal ends. They diverted money and built up a huge inventory of properties and material goods at the expense of the buyers. They deserve no leniency, whatsoever as their approach was against all norms of ethics and business proprietary. This is a case of a massive corporate fraud which brings the nation into disrepute. A very large number of reputed foreigners, NRIs, corporate big-wigs, spouse of foreigners have invested money into the EIL project. Their shock and trauma on being relieved of their life savings has a cascading impact on the reputation of our country. If left unpunished, they can do further damage."
Former senior doctor Dr. Vivek Saraswat said, "A proposal which does not contain truth but has only a hidden agenda of getting bail is not acceptable in any circumstances, Buyers are still waiting eagerly for a proposal which can solve their problems.
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