Adopting a tough stance against Rana, who had sought bail on the ground that he was willing to settle the claims of the investors, the court stated, “Money cannot be the panacea for all the ailments”.

“Hundreds of people have been duped by the accused's company. The accused not only has duped people of their hard earned money but has also breached the trust which was reposed by the investors,” the court noted in its recent order.

Rana, the managing director of the PSG Developers and Engineers Ltd who has been touted as the kingpin of the scam, was arrested in October last year by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) following a flood of complaints.

According to the complaints, Rana, then operating out of Le Meridian Hotel here, had given misleading advertisements for selling flats and plots in various projects and asked people to invest in his company's pre-launch housing schemes in upcoming townships like Noida, Manesar and Faridabad. However, suspicion against him arose after no houses were erected on the proposed land and a few of the refund cheques given to investors also got dishonoured.

Hundreds of investors then lodged complaints with the EOW, which found out in its preliminary inquiry that the projects were unapproved or, in some cases, housed on land not bought by the developers. Requisite licences for the projects were also not acquired by the company, the EOW had observed while registering three separate FIRs against him.

After the Delhi High Court denied bail to him, Rana tried his luck with the metropolitan court, but to no avail as the magistrate found his offence too grave to be diluted by contentions of monetary settlement.