Representative Image | Photo Credit: BCCL

New Delhi: Real estate firm Ansal API's vice chairman Pranav Ansal was detained at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) on Sunday. Ansal was en route to London.

It is to be noted that Ansal API is accused of diverting homebuyers money to other projects and not constructing housing projects on time. Lucknow Police had got a Look Out Circular against him. Officers at Delhi airport have informed their counterparts in Lucknow.

In June this year, a Lucknow court issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of Ansal API’s promoters Sushil Ansal and Pranav Ansal based on a complaint filed by one of the firm’s customers, alleging fraud. The Lucknow chief judicial magistrate’s court also issued non-bailable warrants against two executives of the company.

While Sushil Ansal is the chairman of the Delhi-based property developer, Pranav Ansal is the vice-chairman. According to the FIR, which led to the issuance of warrants, the complainant named Avdhdesh Giri had paid Rs 16.3 lakh to buy a plot in one of Ansal API’s plotted development projects in 2011. However, the company has not allotted the plot to the

complainant despite repeated follow-ups.

The FIR also mentioned that the plot being shown to the complainant now belongs to someone else, and Giri has alleged fraud and manipulation by the company. Ansal API chief executive officer Anil Kumar had quit the company amid

scrutiny of the company by the Uttar Pradesh real estate regulator for potential diversion of Rs 600 crore from one of its township projects. Anil Kumar was also joint managing director of the company.

Worth mentioning here is that Ansal API has reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 140 crore for the year ended March 2019 on total income of Rs 854.4 crore.

(Details awaited...)