HC stays proceedings in decade-old Chandigarh theme park case

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday stayed the proceedings in the decade-old multicrore amusement-cum-theme park project scam, involving three former Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officers.

The high court had taken up petition filed by the three officers, including the then adviser to administrator Lalit Sharma, seeking quashing of the FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2010 and the special CBI court’s order summoning the three while rejecting the investigating agency’s third closure report on January 6, 2020.

The other two officers involved in the case are then UT home secretary Krishan Mohan and then director, tourism, Vivek Atray. Court had already grated them bail after summons were issued to them under cheating, criminal conspiracy and corruption charges.

In 2009, Vivek Aditya, a Right to Information activist, had complained to the Central Vigilance Commission about alleged financial irregularities in the project coming up at Sarangpur village. Later, the case was shifted to the CBI. It was alleged that the former top officials awarded 73.65 acres of land to Unitech Limited ignoring financial rules. The project has since been scrapped.

In the third closure report submitted on November 14, 2018, the CBI had stated that no evidence was found against the accused.