A Delhi court Monday granted bail to the son of late liquor baron Ponty Chadha and vice-chairman of Wave Group, Manpreet (Monty) Singh Chadha, in an alleged property related fraud of over ₹100 crore.

Chadha was arrested at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on June 12 by the Delhi Police, while he was travelling with his family to Phuket, Thailand. A lookout circular was issued against his name. This is the second bail application that he had moved. On June 13, the magisterial court in Saket had rejected his bail application.

Additional sessions judge Gulshan Kumar granted bail to Chadha on two surety bonds of ₹50,000 each. The court released him on the condition that he shall not hamper the investigation or leave the country without the permission of the court.

Senior counsel Vikas Pahwa, appearing for Chadha, said the case was a civil dispute which has been settled. “We have paid the compound interest and the principle amount and a compromise has been entered into,” Pahwa said. He said the magisterial court had earlier declined the bail on the grounds that Chadha has paid the principle amount and not the interest.

Chadha was arrested in the case registered on January 2018 under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 120B (criminal conspiracy), on a complaint filed by K Ramesh, Kaveri Ramesh and 20 others.

They alleged that Chadha’s company, Uppal Chadha Hi-Tech Developers Pvt Ltd, in 2005 started accepting booking for plots in villages of Kachera, Dujana and Mehrauli along NH-24, Ghaziabad. The possession of plots was to be given within eight months from the date of allotment letters. However, the company allegedly failed to provide possession even after 11 years.

The company had lured investors with a brochure and layout plan of Wave City, said investigating officer Umesh Sharma. He said the complainants booked plots during 2005-06 and invested over ₹3.17 crore. During probe, 31 victims filed complaints with the economic offences wing and the amount involved was ₹4.7 crore approximately, Sharma said.

The court, however, granted bail to Chadha after the police submitted that the dispute has been settled and that the settlement agreements have already been executed. The court also took note of the submission by Chadha’s counsel that in case any other investor comes forward, they will settle the matter.

First Published: Jun 18, 2019 03:33 IST