Extortion case: Realty firm ex-director lands behind bars

NEW DELHI: A former director of a real estate company of AVJ Group has been sent to judicial custody till April 3 by a Delhi court in a case of alleged cheating, fabrication of documents and attempt to extort over Rs 31 crore from its chairman. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Khanagwal has fixed for tomorrow arguments on the bail application of Mukesh Aggarwal.

The extortion and cheating case was lodged by the Special Cell of Delhi Police on a complaint filed by AVJ Group's CMD Vinay Jain alleging that Aggarwal used forged documents including cheques, rough receipts and undertakings to cheat him of Rs 31.99 crore.

Aggarwal sought bail on the ground that FIR lodged against him by Jain was a counter blast to his criminal case filed against the chairman under the provisions of the IPC. The anticipatory bail pleas of Aggarwal, at present in judicial custody till April 3, were earlier dismissed by the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court and the trial court.

Aggarwal was appointed as a director in one of the firms of the Group, AVJ Developers (India) Pvt Ltd, in August 2010 and started handling the administrative/financial affairs.

According to police, Aggarwal used to keep with him blank cheques signed by Jain on the pretext of making routine payments and "while doing the administrative work at the corporate office, accused wrongfully gained the possession of blank cheques, other legitimate documents, company's letter heads, authority letters and rubber stamps" which were later misused by him.