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Chennai: In a breather VGN Projects Estates Private Limited, The Supreme court has quashed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) order attaching 10.6 acres of land in Guindy purchased by the company from Hindustan Teleprinters Limited (HTL) in 2013 for ₹115 crore.
The attachment order was passed on the basis of an allegation that the property was sold below the guideline value of ₹387 crore, causing a loss of ₹115 crore to HTL, a Government of India undertaking.
attachment was made under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The case is related to a case registered in the police station CBI Against VGN for causing wrongful loss of Rs 115 crore to the Central Government in land acquisition. According to CBI, VGN had acquired the land state Bank of India (SBI) through a private treaty sale under the SARFAESI Act to recover dues from HTL, the stressed asset management arm.
The agency alleged that officials of SBI, VGN and others conspired and sold the prime land for ₹272 crore, while the guideline value was ₹387 crore.
Based on the FIR lodged by the CBI, the ED initiated investigation under the PMLA and provisionally attached the land acquired by VGN through an order dated February 13, 2018.
Aggrieved, VGN moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to complete the CBI investigation in a time-bound manner and file the final report at the earliest.
On April 29, 2019, CBI filed its closure report stating that no prosecutable evidence was found and hence they closed their case.
Meanwhile, the Madras High Court dismissed a petition filed by VGN seeking quashing of the criminal trial initiated by the ED, leading VGN to approach the Supreme Court.
On December 12, a division bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Abhay S Oka said that the ED proceedings would not stand as the predicate offense filed by the CBI has been closed and the attachment set aside.
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