Jalandhar, May 24 -- The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has made its first arrest in a money-laundering investigation into an alleged change of land use (CLU) fraud involving major real estate projects across Punjab. The accused, Ajay Sehgal, is the main promoter of Suntec City project developed by the Indian Cooperative Housing Building Society (ICHBS). Sehgal, a former secretary of ICHBS, was summoned by the federal agency to record his statement regarding the CLU fraud at its Jalandhar regional office and was arrested on Friday night. On Saturday, a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mohali remanded him in five-day ED custody. The agency is probing alleged irregularities in CLU licences granted to projects linked with Suntec City and Altus Space Builders Private Limited. An ED spokesperson said that investigators found Ajay Sehgal failed to transfer plots reserved for economically weaker sections (EWS) to the estate officer, Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), to date. "It was also revealed that despite the orders of the Punjab and Haryana high court, GMADA has revoked only a partial CLU for 30 acres instead of taking action under Section 90 of the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act. This section empowers the authority to cancel any development or building permission for committing frauds by concealment of information," the ED said. The agency noted that investigators are in the process of making more arrests and plan to reach the top brass in GMADA and other public officials who supported Sehgal in the fraud and received kickbacks in return. "We are conducting an in-depth investigation which has revealed large-scale irregularities in GMADA and the department of town and country planning. Approvals were given to Suntec City and several other developers for illegal gratifications, enriching real estate developers in Punjab at the cost of poor farmers and landowners," the ED said. The ED case stems from an FIR registered at the Mullanpur police station of Mohali in November 2022 against Sehgal and other ICHBS office-bearers, including Suresh Kumar Bajaj, Aashish Kamra, and Rajesh Girdhar, for allegedly duping customers and landowners by preparing fraudulent CLUs. The case was registered under Sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. The ED probe found that Bajaj and Sehgal prepared fake consent letters with respect to 30.5 acres belonging to 15 landowners. On the basis of these fake consent letters, the accused entities were granted a CLU for developing Suntec City, a real estate mega project. "These consent letters were prepared with forged signatures and thumbprints of the landowners to obtain the CLU. Thereafter, ICHBS collected over Rs.150 crore by adding members to the society without executing any sale deeds," the ED said. Besides Suntec City, Sehgal developed the La Canela residential multi-storey complex and the District-7 commercial complex based on the CLU obtained from these fake consent letters. "All units in these two projects have been sold, thereby generating proceeds of crime. Investigation is also being undertaken into allegations of irregularities in Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) approval for the District-7 commercial complex," the ED investigation found. GMADA later cancelled the ICHBS licence after victims of its projects filed a petition before the high court. On May 8 and 9, the ED conducted searches on the premises linked to Sehgal, ABS Townships, Altus Space Builders, Dhir Constructions, and their associates. The agency recovered nearly Rs.1 crore during the raids. During the searches, ED officials recovered Rs.21 lakh allegedly thrown from the ninth floor of Western Towers in Kharar by individuals linked to the accused. The searches also targeted alleged middlemen Nitin Gohal and Pritpal Singh Dhindsa. Last week, the ED summoned GMADA chief Sandeep Kumar, a 2015-batch IAS officer, and asked the urban development authority to depute a gazetted officer to furnish records related to Altus Space and a list of officials involved in the approval and clearing of the projects. It sought details of all transactions between Altus Space and the urban development authority. The ED probe found that to facilitate money laundering, Gaurav Dhir of Dhir Constructions, through its entitySuncity Projects, allegedly purchased the project from Altus Space for Rs.130 crore, undervaluing the project by more than Rs.170 crore. Gaurav Dhir is a close associate of Punjab cabinet minister and state Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) president Aman Arora....