Former Punjab Chief Secretary Anurag Verma has sought more time to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the ongoing investigation into the multi-crore scam involving Mohali-based Suntec City and Altus Space Builders Private Limited.
Verma was summoned by the ED on August 31, but he did not appear and has written to the investigating officers requesting them to postpone his appearance. The ED will soon issue fresh summons to him for a new date.
Verma is currently serving as Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue Department), but when the scam took place, he was the head of the Housing and Urban Development Department. His role is being probed for violations of rules in conversion of land use (CLU) and illegal layout changes to benefit private builders. There are allegations that after illegal layout changes, the group housing sites of the Muirwoods Ecocity mega project were transferred to Gaurav Dhir's Dhir Constructions after the application to transfer them to the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) was rejected.
The reversal in policy was done in 2022 when AAP Punjab's current president Aman Arora was the Housing and Urban Development Minister.
Before Anurag Verma, IAS Officer Kanwal Preet Brar was also summoned twice in the same case on 18th and 27th August. She was asked to submit additional documents related to the case.
Brar, a 2007 batch IAS, promoted from state civil services, was then serving as Director of Town and Country Planning. ED is probing her role in the violation of rules in the change of land use in the two schemes.
Alok Mathur is a law graduate. Journalism is his first love which he now pursues in the latter half of his career. Controversies and crime are the right triggers for him.
