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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached lands and bank balances worth ₹66.57 crore in the Manesar Land Scam which had allegedly unfolded by connivance of State government officials and politicians along with private builders, said an ED press releasee.

Assets worth ₹42.19 crore have already been attached earlier in connection with the case.

The attached assets include 14.56 acres of land at Gurugram valued at ₹43.54 crore belonging to Mahamaya Exports Pvt Ltd, and four acres of land and bank balances totalling ₹23.03 crore of other accused persons.

The Government of Haryana had issued a notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 on August 27, 2004 and another one under Section 6 of the Act on August 25, 2005 for acquisition of 912 acres land, to set up an Industrial Model Township comprising villages Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula in Gurugram district, the release stated.

It further said that a large number of land owners had sold about 400 acres at throwaway price to private builders resulting in loss of ₹1,500 crore.

Investigations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) revealed that private builders to whom the licences were granted, made wrongful gain by conspiring with officials of the Haryana government and politicians involved in the release of land.

Most of the land was brought by the AB Atul Bansal’s WIL Groupp. After obtaining the licences, ABWIL had fraudulently sold the land and licences to the private persons or developers making a huge profit. This consisted of 14.56 acres of land of Mahamaya Exports in which Atul Bansal and Sona Bansal hold 74 per cent of shares, and four acres of land and balances in the bank account of other accused persons were provisionally attached under PMLA.

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