CHENNAI: In a big relief to 500 homebuyers who have bought apartments in VGN Fairmont at Guindy here, a Special Court for CBI cases has closed the case against VGN Developers for causing wrongful loss of Rs 115 crore to Central government in land acquisition.
S Jawahar, XI Additional Special Judge for CBI cases, has said investigation by Central Bureau of Investigation did not establish the allegations against Leon Terattil, the then deputy general manager of Stressed Assets Management Branch, State Bank of India, N Ramadoss then SBI chief manager, DP Gupta, chief operating officer of Hindustan Teleprinters and V Pratish Devadoss, managing director of VGN as there was no sufficient evidence to launch prosecution against the accused for offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal misconduct. The judge said as per oral and documentary evidence, the allegations in the FIR that the accused had caused wrongful loss to the government to the tune of `115 crore and obtaining corresponding wrongful gain to themselves was not substantiated with prosecutable evidence.
The property initially belonged to Hindustan Teleprinters Limited. It was sold to VGN property developers in 2013 for Rs 272 crore as VGN emerged the highest bidder. Since then, VGN had converted this into a residential project consisting of 1600 apartments. The first phase was launched in 2015 and close to 500 units were sold.
The closing of the case came as a big relief to 500 homebuyers who had bought apartments and banks which funded these home loans.“VGN now plans to deliver the project as per the revised RERA timelines. VGN also confirmed that sale and construction of the project is in full swing. Seven blocks are nearing completion which is part of Phase 1,” said H Sureshkumar, general manager, marketing, VGN Property Developers Private Limited.
“Based on this court order, we will be approaching ED who will also withdraw the attachment order,” he said.“The appellate tribunal has already issued an order to set aside provisional attachment on February 14, 2019. CBI will be sending the copy to Enforcement Directorate,” he said.ED had attached the multi-storied residential building worth `115 crore under Prevention of Money Laundering Act.