Delhi court denies bail real estate company directors over allegations of misrepresenting people

A Delhi court has denied bail to city-based real estate company directors who were arrested for allegedly misrepresenting many people about the title of the land and sold the units without even obtaining the necessary approvals from the concerned municipal authorities.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Abhilash Malhotra denied bail to Sushant Mutreja and Nishant Mutreja real estate company directors

The court said that it is a serious economic offence wherein gullible investors have been duped with their hard-earned money.

The court said that in such kind of economic cases, the court needs to be dealt "strictly" with so that people do not lose faith in the criminal justice system.

"It is admitted position that the magnitude of the offence involved has affected a large number of people and grant of bail in such kind of economic cases needs to be dealt with strictly so that people may not lose their faith in the criminal justice system," the court said.

"The projects were started on the land which was not belonging to Cosmic Structures Ltd and the units were sold without the necessary approval from the competent authorities. The assured return was given as bait to lure the investors and thereafter the assured return was also stopped. It is a serious economic offence wherein gullible investors have been duped with their hard-earned money, therefore keeping in view the merits of the case, I do not found any ground for grant of bail to both the accused persons," the Court said.

"From the aforesaid allegations made in various complaints, it is prima facie clear that the company M/s Cosmic Structures was not having the clear title in respect of the land on which the projects were to be launched. In some cases, the agreement with the original allottee was also cancelled. The approval from the competent authority, Ministry of Environment, Government of India and Central Ground Water Authority was not taken and the projects were launched illegally," the court observed.

"The investors were duped by offering assured returns which were given initially but later on stopped. Negligible construction was done in all the projects and no delivery took place in any of the projects. The money meant for the project was diverted illegally to the other shell companies," the court noted.

According to the prosecution, the projects were launched on the land which was not belonging to Cosmic Structures Ltd and the accused persons misrepresented the public at large about the title of the land and sold the units without even obtaining the necessary approvals from the concerned municipal authorities.

The assured returns were only given for a very short period as bait to the gullible investor and later on it was also stopped and lot of investors have been duped by the applicants and economic offence is committed against the society at large, the prosecution said.

Counsel of Cosmic Victim Association has submitted that around Rs 600 crores have been collected from the investors and have been misappropriated by the accused and multiple FIRs have been lodged.

( With inputs from ANI )