Source – hindustantimes.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Gurugram court has issued arrest warrants against Rakesh Babbar, one of the promoters of Appu Ghar, the controversial Gurugram amusement park, in a cheating case pertaining to siphoning of investors\u2019 money. He is the son of former Delhi BJP MLA OP Babbar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gurugram chief judicial magistrate (CJM) Narender Singh on December 5 issued a warrant of arrest against Rakesh Babbar for December 17. The CJM has also ordered that Gurugram DCP (West), who heads the special investigation team (SIT) probing the case, shall appear in person in case the warrants of arrest were not executed. Meanwhile, three other promoters of the project, Robin Vijeshwar, Monny Vijeshwar and Gian Vijeshwar, also accused in the cheating case, were granted interim bail by the Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) on December 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Babbar\u2019s arrest warrant was issued after his bail application was dismissed by Gurugram additional sessions judge (ASJ), Prashant Rana on December 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
9 MORE CASES COME TO COURT\u2019S NOTICE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Gurugram ASJ in his December 4 order said the accused are habitual offenders and have prima-facie committed similar offences at Jaipur by getting on lease 300 acres, received similar investment from around 1,000 investors in a project – Mega Tourism City, Aamer, Jaipur, since 2013 till 2018 on the pretext of giving them assured monthly returns. However, the returns were never given. \u201cThe said FIRs were registered against all the four accused Gian Vijeshwar, Robin Vijeshwar, Monny Vijeshwar and Rakesh Babbar and other directors of the company. Copies of nine such FIRs have been placed on record, by the counsel for the complainant. These FIRs are for commission of offences of cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery, fabrication and criminal conspiracy,\u2019\u2019 said the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Quoting a Supreme Court ruling, the ASJ said thE economic offences are a class apart and need to be visited with a different approach in the matter of bail. \u201cThe economic offences having deep-rooted conspiracy and involving huge loss to public funds need to be viewed seriously and considered as a grave offence affecting the economy of the country as a whole and thereby causing a serious threat to the financial health of the country. Hence, the accused-applicant is not entitled to the extraordinary relief of pre-arrest bail, which is only granted in cases of false implication or where custodial interrogation is not required,\u201d the order said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n THE CASE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On the directions of Punjab and Haryana high court, a case of cheating and criminal breach of trust was registered by Gurugram police in 2018 against Delhi-based businessman Rakesh Babbar, Gian Vijeshwar and other directors of M\/s International Recreation and Amusement Limited (IRAL), the promoters of Appu Ghar amusement park in Gurgaon\u2019s Sector-29. The HC had last year ordered that Gurugram CJM will monitor the investigations in the case. The FIR said the accused had cheated and indulged in criminal breach of trust with the complainant and other investors, thus depriving them of their hard-earned money. It said that the directors have more than 17 private and limited companies and they collected about \u20b9400 crore from investors and transferred it to the accounts of other companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A perusal of various memorandums of understanding and license agreements with the investors executed between 2011 to 2014 has revealed that the investors were to be given assured monthly returns of about \u20b950,000. Allegedly around 1,200 such agreements were entered into by the accused and around \u20b9400 crore was received in IRAL\u2019s account to construct an amusement park, a retail mall, a family entertainment centre and a multi-level parking. However out of the four, only the amusement park is functional.<\/p>\n