UP CM Yogi Adityanath vows to get back money of people defrauded by Ansal Properties

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said Ansal Properties will have to return the money of home buyers and that if need be, his government would go to ‘paatal’ (hell) to get the money back. Adityanath was speaking at the Budget session of the state assembly on Tuesday.

On Monday, the CM had ordered that FIR be filed against this company and against all those across the state who had defrauded home buyers.

This comes close on the heels of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) initiating insolvency proceedings against the company. The Lucknow Development Authority has alleged that these proceedings were started without informing it.

Meanwhile, the group had huge advertisements in the state’s newspapers with an open letter, urging its customers to not fall prey to rumours.

Signed by Pranav Ansal, the chairman of Ansal Properties and Infrastructure Limited, the open letters say the faith of its customers is the company’s strength and that they are like one big family which has overcome great difficulties in the past.

The letter says the company will appeal against the NCLAT decision so that the money of buyers can be safeguarded. It has termed the decision ‘just a legal process’.

In Lucknow, the company had, in 2006 launched a project named ‘Sushant Golf City’. It had claimed that 700 flats in the project would be built for the economically weaker sections, in keeping with government regulations. The allottees had been promised possession in three years. But this is yet to happen.

The harried home buyers first approached the Lucknow Development Authority with complaints in 2016, but no action was taken. However, since 2017, more than 20 FIRs have been filed in Lucknow against the company. This was the year when the BJP came to power in the state and the government made its intent in dealing with errant builders very clear.

It is noteworthy that the LDA has still not filed an FIR against the builder, but after the CM’s instructions, it has said that the same will be done within a week.

The group had been allocated 432 acres of land and it owes its buyers more than Rs 400 crore.