PC row: Hotelier involved in theft of 21 ministry files,says firm

“The accused (S P Gupta) not only forged letterheads of Sonia Gandhi and other leaders but was also involved in stealing of 21 files from the office of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs at Shastri Bhavan. These files were recovered from the house of Gupta’s financial advisor during an Income-Tax raid at his Naraina residence (in Delhi),” said Harsh Alagh of VLS Finance Limited. He is also a complainant in the case.

“Most of the metropolitan magistrates hearing the cases have recused themselves. The accused forged the signature of several leaders and politicians to file frivolous complaints against VLS,” he said.

An official of Sunair Hotels Private Limited,owned by Gupta,said,“The matter pertaining to the missing 21 files is sub judice so we cannot comment. As far as the other three cases are concerned they are civil in nature and don’t have anything criminal. It was keeping this in mind that Delhi government had prepared a report that the cases be withdrawn against Sunair Hotels. We have also filed counter cases against VLS Finance Limited. This is a ploy to usurp Metropolitan Hotel located in the heart of the city,” said a company official.

The three cases whose withdrawal orders were revoked are:

FIR number 90/2000,Connaught Place: A case was filed against S P Gupta,owner of Sunair Hotels Private Limited,alleging that he created 210 lakh equity shares in his name as well as in the name of his family members. These shares were placed before financial institutions and banks to borrow money. No cash was paid by Gupta to buy these shares. An amount of Rs 42 crore was raised by selling these fake shares. No arrests were made and a chargesheet was filed in the case in 2003.

FIR number 99/2002,Connaught Place: This case pertained to siphoning funds of banks and financial institutions procured as loans to bogus and dummy companies. Gupta and his company allegedly created 107.5 lakh shares in the name of his company without contributing any cash. In this case also no arrests were made and a chargesheet was filed by the police in 2007.

FIR number 148/2002,Defence Colony: T B Gupta,a senior official of VLS Finance Limited lodged a complaint with the police that they were being threatened by S P Gupta and his associates. VLS employee Harsh Alagh,who also lodged a case against them,told the police the accused had even forged the signature of ABA Ghani Khan Chowdhury to send a letter to the Finance Ministry to take action against them. The FIR said some known and unknown persons even threatened Alagh at his office and warned him of dire consequences. No arrests were made in the case but a chargesheet was filed in January 2006 followed by a supplementary chargesheet on November 20,2007.