Charge sheet against 7 for cheating Chatwal's hotel of Rs9 crore

Kerala police has filed a charge sheet against seven persons, including two former employees of the Kochi-based Dream Hotel owned by NRI hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal, for allegedly cheating the hotel of Rs9 crore.

The charge sheet has been filed before the chief judicial magistrate, Ernakulam, N Leelamani against Ram Gupta, former managing director, and Satyendar Khurana, former director, projects of the Middle East Hotel Company and five others including three Delhi-based contractors.

Another accused Nirmal Khandelwal, a Delhi-based contractor, has obtained a stay in the Kerala high court with regard to the proceedings against him and has not been chargesheeted. The case will come up for hearing on March 16.

In recent weeks, Chatwal has been embroiled in a controversy over the award of Padma Bhushan with his critics claiming that there were some cases pending against him. However, city police commissioner Manoj Abraham said there are no cases pending against Chatwal in Kochi.

The charge sheet followed a criminal complaint filed by Fintan Francis, Finance Manager of the hotel, who alleged that the accused had defrauded the hotel of over Rs15 crore during its renovation.

The accused have been charged for offences under various sections of the IPC including Sec 406 (breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) 120(b) (criminal conspiracy). Police said the offences were committed during the renovation of the five star hotel.

The property was purchased by the company in April 2008 and Gupta had the exclusive charge of awarding all work orders and procurement of hotel supplies etc. Two of the accused — Jagdish Khadelwal and Ramesh Sharma are Delhi-based contractors.

As per the chargesheet, Gupta and Khurana undertook flooring work totalling Rs 5 crore and produced an invoice of Rs7.6 crore. Police said large amounts were procured in the name of electronic and aluminium fabrication works using inferior materials.

There was largescale cheating in the purchase of various equipment for the hotel. By installing substandard equipment, large amounts were siphoned off. In the supply of linen, the accused cheated the company of Rs50 lakh, the chargesheet stated. The five star hotel was opened in April last year.