Woman wanted in Gurugram-Manesar land scam and other cheating cases – Sona Bansal arrested from Mumbai

NEW DELHI, (ANI0: A woman wanted in 23 high profile cases of cheating and fraud including Gurugram-Manesar industrial model township land grab scam has been arrested from Mumbai, Delhi Crime Branch said on Sunday.

Ravinder Singh Yadav, Special Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) said that the arrested woman has been identified Sona Bansal, who is the wife of Atul Bansal.

“She was wanted in 23 cases of cheating registered in Delhi and Haryana by various Law Enforcement Central and State Agencies,” said Yadav. “The arrest was made on the basis of the inputs received through sources,” Yadav added.

The ARSC team of the Crime Branch conducted the raid at a high-end society in Mumbai and arrested the accused, Sona Bansal, from there. Her husband, Atul Bansal, was however not found there and his whereabouts are being ascertained, officials said.

According to Crime Branch officials, both the accused are natives of Delhi but they had been residing in Mumbai with the assumed identities of Mrs Sulochana and Arun Gupta prepared on fake and forged documents.

Officials said that the accused, Atul Bansal and his wife Sona Bansal, were wanted in several high-profile white-collar economic crimes, including the ‘Gurugram-Manesar Industrial Model Township Land Grab Scam’ amounting to Rs 1500 crore, stated the Crime Branch official.

According to Special CP Yadav, both were the directors of the builder firm named after their son ‘Aditya Build Well (ABW) Infrastructure Limited’.

Enforcement Directorate (ED) had initiated a money laundering investigation on the basis of an FIR registered at Manesar police station, Gurugram and thereafter investigation was taken up by the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), against the alleged accused including unknown public servants of Haryana Government and other individuals, affirmed the Crime Branch official.

Several alleged persons including Atul Bansal and his wife Sona Bansal of ABW Infrastructure Limited were charge-sheeted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), confirmed the Crime Branch.

The officials said that the ED found in its probe that the builders/private entities grabbed the land from farmers and landholders at nominal rates by instilling in them the fear of acquisition of their land.

Believing the accused and under the fear of losing their land to an acquisition, the farmers and landholders sold their lands to such private entities, who ultimately sold the same to various builders, who obtained licences and gained handsome profits in a fraudulent manner, stated the officials.

Special CP Yadav confirmed that most of the land parcels were purchased by ABW Infrastructure Ltd. group, which was controlled by Atul Bansal, Sona Bansal and others. After obtaining licenses, A.B.W. Infrastructure Limited further sold the licensed/unlicensed lands and building licences to some private persons/developers and thereby earned windfall profits.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also registered a criminal case against the accused persons in September 2015 following allegations that private builders, in collusion with some public servants of the Haryana government, had bought around 400 acres of land from farmers and land-owners of different villages in Gurugram district at throwaway prices, stated the official. At that time, the land was valued at around Rs 1,600 crores, but the same was bought by the alleged builders for around Rs 100 crores only, officials said.

Officials informed that the accused were declared PO in the said case by CBI Panchkula Court in April 2018. During interrogation, she has taken the alibi that her husband Atul Bansal has recently expired, which is being verified as there is neither any proof of the same nor could she produce any document regarding his death, revealed the Crime Branch.

Apart from this land scam, the firm also did not deliver any of its projects to buyers, situated in Delhi/NCR, added the official. In this regard, multiple cases of cheating were registered against ABW Infrastructure Limited, said the official.
According to the Crime Branch officials, multiple cases are being investigated by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police and accused Atul Bansal and Sona Bansal were also declared PO in all these cases.

Sona Bansal was one of the directors of the real-estate firm namely ABW Infrastructure Ltd., Saket District Centre, Saket, Delhi, they said. The officials claimed that the fugitive couple was in the process to flee abroad to evade arrest and escape forever from the Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) and the criminal justice system.

A cash reward of Rs 50,000 was also declared by Delhi Police on her arrest as she and her husband Atul Bansal had been declared ‘Proclaimed Offenders’ in many cases, officials added. (ANI)