The FIR was lodged following the complaint of Puneet Gupta, owner of Ayaan Food Court. Chandigarh Police on Saturday booked the management of Elante Mall for wrongful confinement, criminal intimidation, and conspiracy in connection to forcefully taking possession of Ayaan Food Court situated on the third floor of the mall a day earlier.
The officials booked included Anil Malhotra, executive director of Elante Mall, Nitin Chaturvedi, security in-charge, as well as Venkat, Nitin, and Abhishek Sharma. The FIR was lodged following the complaint of Puneet Gupta, owner of Ayaan Food Court.
Though Gupta has also mentioned the name of the national director of Elante Mall in his complaint, the police have so far not named him as an accused in the FIR.
Contacted, a representative of Elante Mall declined to comment saying that they will release a statement at an appropriate time.
“The matter is related to the forceful takeover of the food court, which was rented out on a nine-year lease to one Puneet Gupta. The lease ended on March 31 but a matter pertaining to the eviction has been pending in the district courts, Sector 43 for the last year. Puneet Gupta claimed that many people, in the presence of Elante Mall officials, forcefully tried to take possession of the food court. The accused confined the food court employees as well as the sub-lessees, and threatened them. We have lodged an FIR and started investigations. The suspects are being questioned and we will make arrests soon,” a police officer said.
Meanwhile, Puneet Gupta, said, “Earlier, police had merely lodged a DDR on March 31. Last night, the management officials arrived at the spot accompanied by hundreds of people, including bouncers, and security guards, and forcefully tried to take possession. An FIR against them should have been lodged earlier.”
In his police complaint, Puneet Gupta has stated, “Elante Mall officials — including Nitin Chaturvedi, Venkat and Salim Roopani, and other staff — on instructions from Dalip Sehgal forcibly trespassed on my property on the 3rd floor of Elante Mall and started pasting notices all over the place. They even threatened my employees and sub lessees of dire consequences and told them that their belongings shall be thrown out and nobody will be allowed to enter the premises or work there. The intention of the management of Elante Mall CSJ Infrastructure is that they want to take forcible possession of the property in question without any due process of law. Investigations should be conducted and all the incriminating material, like barricades and weapons of security, be taken into possession.” A
case was registered at PS Industrial Area.
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