Supreme Court sets aside bail granted to businessman Satinder Singh Bhasin for duping allottees in project

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside the bail granted to businessman Satinder Singh Bhasin in connection with a multi-crore rupee alleged Grand Venice project scam in Greater Noida and directed him to surrender before the jail authorities within a week.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N Kotiswar Singh cancelled Bhasin's bail as he failed to settle the claims of the flat allottees, and also for siphoning off Rs 50 crore from the funds of Bhasin Infotech and Infrastructure Private Limited (BIIPL) for deposit as bail condition despite the court's direction on November 6, 2019 that the said amount should be from his personal account.

The court's order came on a batch of petitions filed by allottees of the project.

The bench directed that Bhasin may apply for regular bail afresh after a period of 12 months, subject to fully complying with the orders passed in the insolvency proceedings. The court ordered for forfeiture of Rs 50 crore and Rs 5 crore as accrued interest of the amount.

It said an alarming aspect is that no board resolution has been passed by BIIPL before disbursal of the amount to secure his bail. "In the present case, it cannot be said that the loan to secure bail for the petitioner was connected to the company's principal business activities by any stretch of imagination,'' the bench said.

The court found there is no clarity on the final number of allottees, the unit number that they have been allotted, the consideration paid and the dues remaining. It also noted the project is not in a condition where possession can be handed over to the allottees and Bhasin did not make genuine and meaningful efforts to settle the claims of the allottees.

Around 46 FIRs were registered in connection with the alleged scam in which investors claimed that they were duped by the accused when handing over the plot of land. The FIRs, registered in New Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, were filed by the allottees of units in the project against the petitioner, alleging non-delivery of their units, siphoning of their funds and impropriety in allotment of land with the collusion of state officials.