In a significant development, NCLT has restrained MGF company headed by Shravan Gupta against creating any third party rights relating to a 3.65 Acres Gurgaon prime property. MGF had sought transfer of development rights to itself, based on demerger order. NCLT has forbidden MGF aginst creating any such rights.
MGF had obtained an order from the Director Town and Country Planning Haryana for transfer of development rights of a partilcular land from Emmar to MGF. It did this manipulation by presenting an NCLT order dated 08.01.2018, totally out of context. The transfer which MGF obtained to the land of 3.65 acres located in village Gatta, Gurugram, was not part of the order passed by NCLT on the aforesaid date.
NCLT has found two versions of MGF which were absolutely inconsistent to each other. They obtained a licence to their favor on a statment that right has been vested to them through demerger order which was not true. Based on these facts NCLT has directed MGF not to create any third party rights relating to 3.65 acres Gurugram land.
This is not the first time MGF and its chairman Shravan Gupta has been accused of fraud and manipulation. Emaar Properties has already alleged fraud by Gupta and his associates while he was the MD and CEO of their erstwhile joint venture, Emaar MGF Land. In its petition, it has sought security in the form of bank guarantees of Rs 2,400 crore to cover losses in the joint venture in India.
According to Emaar, around Rs 2,400 crore, or over one quarter of its FDI, was siphoned off by Gupta and his family for their personal benefit.
The UAE-based developer, which entered India in 2005, invested about Rs 8,500 crore in the Indian real estate market through Emaar MGF. Emaar said it had commissioned a private investigation into the matter by the Globe Detective Agency to probe connections between MGF and shell entities.
The probe allegedly also revealed that the company had given several land parcels which were purchased from third parties at prices higher than the market value.
Citing several instances of alleged fraud and illegal acts through joint development agreements, transfer of land parcels to MGF shell entities without approval from Emaar or transfer of inferior land parcels from MGF entities to Emaar’s subsidiaries, Emaar has sought a restraint order on Gupta and associates from any transaction on their movable or immovable funds and assets.
Emaar issued a legal notice on October 29, 2019 to Gupta, his wife and MGF about the fraudulent conduct of MGF on breach of their fiduciary responsibility, after it received the investigation report earlier in the year.
Gupta was the Managing Director and CEO of the joint venture Emaar MGF Land until 2016. He finally resigned as the Managing Director of the joint venture company in 2016 and the demerger of MGF was approved in July 2018.
Emaar claim MGF and Gupta used shell companies to siphon funds from Emaar MGF or its subsidiaries. The modus operandi for siphoning off funds included joint development agreements (JDA) with MGF group shell companies – owned by employees or relatives of the Gupta family — without disclosing their true relationship with MGF or its promoter families, and under these agreements, deriving revenue or benefits from Emaar MGF despite having paper or no obligations.
