A prominent city-based businessman and senior Congress leader, the management of Fun Republic and several officials of the UT Administration were booked on charges of Prevention of Corruption Act and criminal conspiracy.
Mahesh Aggarwal, Deputy Inspector General, CBI, confirmed, “We’ve got the prosecution sanction and shall be proceeding further. Further details cannot be divulged at this stage.”
In April, Congress leader Kewal Dhillon was granted anticipatory bail in the Fun Republic scam. Dhillon had moved the CBI court apprehending arrest after the investigating agency prepared a detailed chargesheet against all the five scam-accused.
The CBI had sought sanction to prosecute three UT Administration officials — Sub-Divisional Officer T P Singh, Assistant Engineer Sandeep Sharma and Office Superintendent Brij Mohan.
Dhillon, however, had earlier clarified that he had nothing to do with Fun Republic, as his company Dhillon Brothers Pvt Ltd, had already leased out the entire Dhillon Complex to Zee TV group on May 26, 2000, for 25 years and was only receiving lease rentals.
After getting prosecution sanction, the CBI is expected to file the chargesheet in the coming week in the court of the Special Judge, CBI, Chandigarh.
The CBI began investigating the alleged nexus between the officials of UT Estate Office building branch and Fun Republic in 2007, after a four-member team of Municipal Corporation listed a series of violations on almost all the floors of the multiplex.
The team of MC officials submitted its report in February 2007 and evaluated the violations to above Rs 6 crore including a penalty of Rs 4.5 crore and Rs 1.5 crore as conversion charges. The CBI raided the office of the building branch, UT Estate Office, in February, 2007; the office of the businessman and the residences of certain officials of the UT Estate Office, from where large number of ‘incriminating’ documents were seized.
The documents indicated that though the multiplex had not received a completion certificate from the UT Estate Office, it went on screening movies. While the completion certificate was issued in 2006, Fun Republic had been in place since 2004.
The documents also allegedly revealed numerous violations, irregularities into the affairs of the multiplex and the way sanctions were obtained from the UT Estate Office.
Certain glaring violations pointed out by the MC team included the bar-cum-restaurant, Athena, which was constructed in office space; the height of the building beyond permissible norms; and the setting up of food courts in the area meant for the public. Most of these violations have now been removed by Fun Republic.