Former Chief Secretary of Punjab Anurag Verma and IAS officer Kanwal Preet Brar will have to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in case related to the alleged scam involving Suntec City and Altus Space Builders Private Limited.
Verma will have to appear on August 31 while Brar, who had appeared on August 18 also, has been re summoned with additional documents on August 27, 2026.
Verma, who is currently serving as the Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue will appear before the agency for the first time. The ED has summoned Verma as he was heading Housing and Urban Development Department when the alleged irregularities took place.
The 2007-batch Punjab cadre officer promoted from state civil service, Brar is currently serving as the Secretary in the Health and Family Welfare Department, Punjab.
However, the investigation being carried out by the ED pertains to her tenure when she was serving as the Director, Town and Country Planning, in 2024.
What are the allegations?
There have been allegations that rules were violated in the grant of change of land use and in unauthorised layout modifications allegedly made to benefit private builders.
It is alleged that group housing sites in the mega-project Muirwoods Ecocity were transferred to Dhir Constructions, owned by Gaurav Dhir.
It is alleged that the transfer was effected following the unauthorised layout modification after application to transfer the sites to Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) was rejected.
There are also allegations that in the Suntec City case, the builder was allegedly protected by initiating action under Section 85 despite material misrepresentation warranting action under Section 90 of the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act. It has also been observed that the policy was reversed in 2022 when Aman Arora, now the AAP Punjab president, was the Minister for Housing and Urban Development.
