New Delhi: The Supreme Court has stayed criminal proceedings against Lalit Goyal, Managing Director of IREO Group, and Vikas Oberoi, Chairman and Managing Director of Oberoi Realty Limited, in a case involving allegations of cheating, criminal breach of trust, and forgery.
A vacation bench comprising Justices PV Sanjay Kumar and Augustine George Masih issued notice to the Haryana government in response to a plea challenging an order by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The High Court’s order from June 6 had upheld the registration of an FIR against the realty executives.
Details of the FIR
The FIR was lodged at the DLF Phase 2 police station following a complaint by Advance India Projects Limited (AIPL). It accuses the IREO and Oberoi groups of conspiring to defraud investors and the AIPL Group. The complaint alleges that IREO Group embezzled approximately ₹1,777 crore, with ₹1,376 crore of this amount collected as advance payments from allottees.
AIPL claims that IREO collected ₹400 crore from around 70 allottees in the Grand Hyatt Residency Project in Chandigarh as part of this embezzlement. The FIR includes charges under sections 409 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document), and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
Supreme Court’s Interim Order
The Supreme Court bench noted the necessity to examine whether the filing of the second complaint constituted an abuse of process and if the complainant approached the court with unclean hands. “The question as to whether the filing of the second complaint would amount to an abuse of process and as to whether the complainant approached the court with unclean hands requires further examination,” the bench stated. The court has stayed further proceedings related to the FIR in the interim.
According to AIPL, the issues with IREO were initially resolved through an agreement, which IREO subsequently violated by entering into a deal with another builder, Oberoi Group. This alleged breach resulted in significant financial losses for AIPL. The next hearing date and further developments in this high-profile case remain awaited.
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