The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized four luxury cars worth Rs 4 crore, jewellery worth Rs 14.5 lakh and Rs 4.5 lakh cash in searches conducted at companies “owned and controlled” by Congress’s Haryana MLA Dharam Singh Chhoker, as part of a money laundering probe linked to alleged fraud with home buyers. The 59-year-old two-time legislator from Samalkha in Panipat district is the "owner and promoter" of the Mahira Group along with his sons Sikander Singh and Vikas Chhoker. “On July 25, the ED conducted search operations at 11 locations spread over Samalkha, Gurugram and Delhi belonging to Sai Aaina Farms Pvt. Ltd (currently Mahira Infratech Pvt. Ltd) and other companies of Mahira Group owned and controlled by Chhoker, who is an MLA from Samalkha constituency, and family under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act,” an ED spokesperson said. According to the ED, the directors/ promoters of Mahira Group — Dharam Singh Chhoker, Sikander Singh and Vikas Chhoker — and other key employees remained absent during the ED search and have not joined the investigation till date. “Freezing orders in respect of offices and bank accounts of Mahira Group were issued during the search operations,” the spokesperson said. “The money laundering case stems from an FIR by Gurugram Police against the accused and Sai Aaina Farms Pvt Ltd for cheating and forgery as it is alleged to have collected about Rs 360 crore from 1,497 home buyers under the affordable housing scheme on the promise of providing homes at Sector 68 in Gurugram. However, the entity failed to deliver the houses and missed multiple deadlines. The home buyers have been holding protests/dharnas for the last one year against the Mahira Group seeking delivery of the promised houses at the earliest,” ED said in a statement. “Investigations have revealed that the entity siphoned off home buyers' money by booking fake construction expenditure in group entities. Cash equivalent to the fake purchases was received back from the entities providing fake bills/invoices by the Directors/Promoters of Mahira Group, which was used for personal gains. Several personal family expenditures were also booked as construction/ business expenditure in group entities,” the spokesperson said. “The directors/promoters also diverted home buyers' money to other group entities as loans, which is outstanding for years, for personal gains. Preliminary investigations also show that the directors/ promoters of Mahira Group siphoned off about Rs 107.5 crore from M/s Sai Aaina Farms Pvt. Ltd. (belonging to home buyers of Sector 68 housing project) alone. Investigations with respect to financial transactions of other four affordable housing projects are in progress,” the spokesperson said. The raids had been conducted on Chhokar's house in Samalkha, office and fuel station in Panipat and properties in Hisar, Gurgaon and Chandigarh. Chhoker had won his first Assembly election in 2009 from Samalkha on a ticket of the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), a breakaway Congress faction led by former CM Bhajan Lal that later merged back with the Congress. When the HJC aligned with the BJP in 2014, he contested Samalkha on a Congress ticket, but lost. The close confidant of veteran Congress leader and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was re-elected from the Gujjar-dominated Samalkha seat on a Congress ticket in the 2019 Haryana Legislative Assembly polls. In the election affidavit filed at the time of the 2019 Assembly polls, the Class 10 passout had shown agriculture as his primary source of income, mentioned no criminal case pending against him, and showed his assets as worth over Rs 1 crore. This is not very different from the worth of his assets dug up by the recent ED raids. According to sources, his son Sikander runs a real estate business in Gurgaon. Sikander is also the Managing Director of the Mahira Group of companies, seven projects of which are embroiled in controversies for alleged irregularities, out of which six are affordable housing projects. Once before in 2021, the ED and Income Tax departments had conducted joint raids at Chhokar’s properties in Samalkha, Panipat, Hisar, Gurgaon and Chandigarh. In the January 2021 raids, Sikander, his brother Vikas and 13 others were booked on charges of fraud in Gurgaon. According to the FIR registered then, the suspects had committed fraud in the pretext of developing an affordable housing project under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) on 10 acres of land at Sector 68 (Badshahpur), Gurgaon. In another case, the Haryana Department of Town and Country Planning (DTCP) in July 2023 ordered the cancellation of the licence of Mahira Home Private Limited and the registration of a criminal case against the realtor for submitting forged building plans for a project in Sector 88B, Gurgaon. Following the order, a complaint was filed by Gurgaon's District Town Planner (Enforcement) and an FIR was registered at Sushant Lok police station, against the company, its directors, associated companies and its authorised signatory, for submitting forged and fabricated plans in 2022 to obtain its license, and repeating the forgery in 2023 for an additional licence.
