Delhi Court grants bail to real estate fraud accused Vardhaman Group Director Harinder Bashista
A Delhi Court recently granted bail to Vardhaman Group Director Harinder Bashishta accused in a multi victim builder buyer fraud case.
Numerous victims were allegedly victims lured by Bashista and others into purchasing units in a real estate project in Knowledge Park-III, Greater Noida. The project, launched in 2009, promised a range of amenities, including office spaces, residential units, and a commercial mall in a prime locality where reputed IT companies were allegedly planning to set up operations.
Noting that the case involving the real estate fraud has now been referred to mediation by the High Court of Delhi and Bashista being one of the accused Directors would be required to be present in the Mediation Proceedings along with others, Judge Rohit Gulia has granted bail to him on his furnishing personal bond in the sum of Rs. 1,00,000/- with two sureties of like amount.
Bashista has also been directed to deposit a sum of Rs.2 crores by way of FD with the Trial Court within 15 days from the date of the order. He has also been asked to not leave the local limits of India without the prior permission of the court and provide his mobile number to the IO and share his location 24 x 7 with the IO through Google.
Judge Gulia noted that Bashista had been in custody for more than 5 months and his custody was not required for investigation as the chargesheet had already been filed. It was further noted that even the FIR was of June-2022 and there were no allegations that when the accused was arrested he tried to interfere in the investigation in any manner.
As per allegations Bashista along with others did not take approval of GNIDA and only on the basis of forged Joint Development Agreement collected the payments from buyers and executed false/forged Builder/Buyer Agreements and Agreement to Sub Lease Deeds. It has been further alleged that the accused/allottee company i.e. M/s Zestha Projects Pvt. Ltd. was not granted any kind of permission to sell the units and that the accused Raju Verma, Harinder Bashista, Vivek Gupta, Late Jaideep Aggarwal and late Rajender Prasad Jain were the authorized signatories in the bank accounts of M/s Zestha Projects Pvt. Ltd. and M/s. Vardhman Estates and Developers Pvt. Ltd.
It was argued that investigation conducted till date revealed, as per scrutiny of balance sheet of M/s Vardhman Developers Pvt. Ltd. for the financial year 2020-2021 revealed that applicant/accused siphoned off the money of the project and misappropriated an amount of Rs.7,92,89,308/- in his of the own name as well as in totality an amount of Rs.87,80,36,041/- was shown as transferred in the name of loan to the related companies in which the accused is one of the Directors.
Advocate Prabhav Ralli appeared for Bashista.
Case Title: State Vs Harinder Bashista