Legal proceedings brought against Hiranandani Group senior officer and accomplices for Rs. 30,000-crore low cost housing swindle

The Anti-Corruption Bureau of Maharashtra Law have filed  for a First Information Report against property developer Niranjan Hiranandani and IAS (Indian Administrative Services) worker Thomas Benjamin, who now works as the Additional Chief Secretary of the Urban Improvement department after their alleged involvement in a property scandal worth Rs. 30,000 crore.

The legal action revolves around the use of 344 acres near Powai, India which was meant to be used to build a large volume of low cost housing but which, according to prosecutors, was used by Hiranandani to build the Hiranandani Complex.

Santosh Daundkar, advocate for the complainant, said: “Pursuant to this situation that the terrain could well be useful for mass construction, government entities of Maharashtra took the choice to return the said acreage to the erstwhile land proprietors in whose Power of Attorney occured by Niranjan Hiranandani, and to decrease the acquisition procedures and the obtained land was given back to the landowners at a cost of Re. 1 per hectare,”

He added: “Once the complete terrain came in possession of the offender Mr. Hiranandani, he then signed a criminal fringe movement with the general public servants. In furtherance to such felony conspiracy, Mr. Hiranandani chose to cheat the less strong areas and and thus, purposely and deliberately flouted the fundamental situation on which the stretch of land was given back to the landowners within the procedures of the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976,”

When inflation is factored into the equation, it works out that the fraud is worth a staggering Rs. 45,000 crore.

The ACB documented an FIR against Mr. Hiranandani, Mr. Benjamin and unidentified federal government administrators under section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, section 120-B read with section 166, 217, 409 and 420 the Indian Penal Code, sections 38, 41 of the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976 and sections 52 and 53 of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Preparation Act, 1966.