Sector 50 Accused used substandard material in the construction of flats, embezzled funds: cops

With the arrest of Brij Mohan Bhardwaj, former secretary of the management of Progressive Cooperative House Building First Society Limited, Sector 50, the Chandigarh Police have detected a fraud of over Rs 10 crore.

Bhardwaj was arrested on charges of cheating, forgery, fraud and criminal conspiracy earlier this month.

The case was registered against the former management of the society, which, besides allegedly swindling the members of the society to the tune of crores of rupees, also used substandard material in the construction of flats. Brij Mohan Bhardwaj is a resident of Sector 44 and was released on bail on Thursday.

Subsequent to the registration of the FIR in September 2007, the Chandigarh Police arrested one of the executive members of the society, Harish Khanna, who was the president of the management committee when the alleged bungling took place. Another accused, Daljit Rai Arora, was also arrested last year.

During the inquiry conducted by the police, it was learnt that the various committees constituted by the present management of the society had unearthed a fraud of over Rs 10 crore, which the accused committed by getting substandard material used in the construction of 597 flats (Category A, B and C).

It was also found that the accused embezzled Rs 2.5 crore by substituting eight members illegally, against the statutory laws and rules framed by the Chandigarh Administration. The accused also allegedly embezzled Rs 1 crore of interest received from various defaulters but showed it later as exempted.

According to the police, the complainant and various other members of the society even alleged that the accused quoted them the prices of flats of categories A, B and C as Rs 7.35 lakh, Rs 6.2 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, respectively, in 2002. But he increased the prices to Rs 9.5 lakh, Rs 7.55 lakh and Rs 6.2 lakh, respectively, two years later.

A scrutiny of the technical committee (Hi-Tech Associates and Batra & Associates) report, revealed how the society management, in connivance with the contractors, not only gave a faulty construction by using substandard material, but also over-charged the members by giving them wrong measurements.

“It appears to be a multi-crore scam. The recent arrest was merely the tip of the iceberg. We are still investigating the matter and more arrests are likely in the coming days,” said an investigating officer.

Admn orders inquiry
* On the request of the Chandigarh Police, the UT Administration has constituted a technical committee, comprising Executive Engineer Jigna K. Sanghadia, Junior Engineer Des Raj and Sub-Divisional Engineer K D Batra. The committee will submit its report on the alleged use of substandard material in the flats, for which the members were allegedly overcharged.