Yes, it’s not good news for Mahira Group. Having one of their directors sent to custody suggests serious legal issues that the company is facing. It could also impact their reputation and operations.
A court in Gurgaon decided on Wednesday that Sikander Singh Chhoker, one of the directors of a real estate company called Mahira Group, will be held by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for five days. This is because he is suspected of being involved in a case of money laundering. Sikander is the son of Dharam Singh Chhoker, who is a member of the Congress party in the government.
The Chhoker family is being looked into by the ED for supposedly taking money that was meant for building homes in Gurgaon. The money was collected from people who wanted to buy houses in a project run by Mahira Group. Sikander was arrested by the ED on Tuesday and brought before the court on Wednesday. The ED told the court that there were five different cases against Sikander and that he didn’t give clear answers when they questioned him. They think he needs to be held in custody so they can ask him more questions and look at documents to find out where the money went and if others were involved.
Mahira Group was supposed to build about 1,500 homes on a piece of land in Sector 68. They collected around Rs 360 crore from people who wanted to buy these homes, but they didn’t deliver the houses. The investigation found that the company took more than Rs 100 crore from these homebuyers.
Sikander’s lawyer, Prashant Yadav, said that Sikander cooperated with the investigation and gave the ED documents they asked for 37 times. But now, they want to keep him in custody even though his father, who is also involved in the case, got relief from the Supreme Court. Yadav thinks Sikander was arrested quickly to stop him from getting help from the Supreme Court.
On April 29, the ED tried to declare Sikander as a criminal who is hiding from the law, but the court said no and issued a warrant for his arrest. He was arrested the next day.
A judge granted the ED five days to question Sikander further.
In February, Sikander tried to stop the ED’s investigation, but he failed. The ED said that there was a case against a company called Sai Aaina Farms Pvt Ltd, which is now called Mahira Infratech Pvt Ltd, and its directors. They were accused of giving fake documents to get permission to build homes in Sector 68. Later, the ED also started a case against them for money laundering.
There were more cases against the company and its directors in other places. The ED discovered that the company took money from homebuyers by pretending to spend it on construction in other companies and then getting cash back from those companies.
