GMADA Under ED Scrutiny: Its Own Files Are Being Examined, Including The One That Funds Aerotropolis ## ED की जांच के दायरे में GMADA: इसकी अपनी फाइलों की हो रही है पड़ताल, Aerotropolis को फंड करने वाली फाइल भी शामिल ## ED ਦੀ ਜਾਂਚ ਹੇਠ GMADA: ਇਸ ਦੀਆਂ ਆਪਣੀਆਂ ਫਾਈਲਾਂ ਦੀ ਪੜਤਾਲ ਹੋ ਰਹੀ ਹੈ, ਜਿਸ ਵਿੱਚ Aerotropolis ਨੂੰ ਫੰਡ ਦੇਣ ਵਾਲੀ ਫਾਈਲ ਵੀ ਸ਼ਾਮਲ

The Enforcement Directorate spent the better part of three days this week inside GMADA's headquarters in Sector 62.

The search began on Tuesday morning and ended at about 1.20pm on Thursday, part of an operation covering 26 premises across Delhi, Mohali, Chandigarh, Panchkula and Ludhiana under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Three of the agency's allegations bear directly on how land in this district is allotted, priced and paid for. All of them are allegations, nothing has been established, and the matter is live.

What the agency says it is investigating

The case concerns alleged irregularities in relaxations granted to a set of real estate firms, named in reporting as Tirupati Infra Projects along with Remigate Buildestates (India), MB Infrabuild, Mera Baba Reality Associates and Mera Baba Infrastructure.

Alongside GMADA's offices, the searches covered the premises of the state's Housing and Urban Development Principal Secretary Vikas Garg, former GMADA principal administrator Rajiv Gupta, a Delhi-based realty company, a residence in Sector 39 Chandigarh associated with former Delhi minister Satyendar Jain, and the premises of Gurpreet Singh Saini, nephew of Punjab cabinet minister Hardeep Singh Mundian.

The first allegation: LOIs issued after the land was frozen

The ED has alleged irregularities in the issuance of Letters of Intent and the execution of transfer deeds despite Section 11 notifications under the land acquisition law.

Section 11 of the 2013 Act is the preliminary notification, the first public step in an acquisition, published once it appears to the government that land in an area is required or is likely to be required for a public purpose. Section 11(4) carries a transaction bar: no person may transact in the notified land, or create encumbrances on it, from the date of publication until the proceedings under that chapter are complete. The Collector may exempt an owner in special circumstances recorded in writing, on the owner's own application, and the Act adds that any loss suffered through a wilful violation of the bar will not be made good by the Collector.

So the freeze is not a formality, and it bites from the earliest rung of the ladder rather than at the declaration stage under Section 19. It is the provision most buyers in this district have never heard of, and the one that decides whether a transfer made during an acquisition counts for anything.

The allegation is that LOIs were issued and transfer deeds executed on land already under that bar. If it is established, the question is not procedural. It goes to whether the instruments themselves were validly created.

The second allegation: reserve prices set too low

The agency has further alleged that reserve prices for GMADA's unsold land bank were, in its words, fraudulently engineered downward before auctions, putting the estimated loss to GMADA and the Punjab government at close to ₹10,000 crore. A separate figure in the reporting puts the suspected undue gain to private entities and corresponding loss to the exchequer in the Tirupati matter at more than ₹100 crore.

Set that against GMADA's own auction last month.

Seven shop-cum-offices in Sector 69 sold at roughly two and a half times their reserve. A corner SCO in Sector 53 went for double. A hospital site in Aerocity A-Block fetched 2.4 times its floor. The auction as a whole raised ₹5,391 crore against a combined reserve of ₹3,872 crore.

Those multiples read at the time as a measure of appetite: what buyers were willing to pay above the authority's floor. The ED's allegation offers a different reading of the same numbers, in which a large gap between reserve and hammer price says something about how the floor was set rather than about how keen the bidders were.

Both readings can be partly true, and only one of them is currently an allegation rather than a finding. But anyone using reserve prices as a valuation benchmark should note that the basis on which they are set is now itself under examination.

The third: the ₹15,000 crore file

Among the records examined at GMADA, according to The Tribune, were files relating to money laundering, change of land use, land acquisition, and the recent bid to raise ₹15,000 crore through a merchant banker.

That is the borrowing programme of August: the appointment of Tipsons Consultancy on a ₹191.16 crore arranger fee, to raise money the government described as an infrastructure development bond rather than a loan, to be repaid through development charges, land monetisation, betterment charges and other receipts linked to the projects.

The programme has a demanding timetable. Nine months from contract signature to raise the full amount, with ₹5,000 crore due in the first three months after an investment-grade rating is obtained, and Finance Department sources indicating the state is unlikely to guarantee the bond.

An unguaranteed bond depends on a rating and on investors. Both look at governance risk. The examination of that file by a central agency is a fact that sits in the same folder as the rating exercise, whatever the investigation eventually concludes.

The legal fight, and what the officers actually said

The state's response was unusual and fast.

Punjab filed a habeas corpus petition before the Punjab and Haryana High Court while the search was still running, alleging that GMADA and state officers were being illegally detained. The court appointed Registrar (Admin-II) Rajan Nanda as Warrant Officer to inspect the premises and review the actions taken under Sections 16 and 17 of the PMLA. The court subsequently directed the state to pay ₹55,000 towards the appointment.

The Warrant Officer attended at around 2.50am on 24 September, spoke to the officers individually, and examined the search authorisations, the panchnamas and related records.

According to the ED's account, the officers told the Warrant Officer they had not been illegally detained or subjected to undue pressure, that they were allowed to contact their families and receive food, and that female staff were permitted to leave in the evening. The agency says their presence was required for the downloading, copying and cloning of electronic material, and that they could leave once another officer was authorised to remain. The agency also says GMADA's offices stayed open throughout, with counters and public access operating normally.

The ED is represented by Additional Solicitor General Satya Pal Jain with senior advocates Zoheb Hossain, Dheeraj Jain and Lokesh Narang, and has indicated it will argue that such a petition is not maintainable.

The political dimension

AAP workers gheraoed the GMADA office on Thursday, led by state working president Amansher Singh Sherry Kalsi with MLA Chetan Singh Jouramajra and S.S. Ahluwalia. Protesters attempted to enter the building, were stopped by police, and windows of ED vehicles were damaged. The protest ended shortly before the search concluded.

The party's position is that the action is political vendetta ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections, that the agency found nothing substantial despite a prolonged search, and that the Centre is attempting to obstruct the state government's functioning. The ED has separately made allegations about informal influence over GMADA decisions by figures outside the authority, which the party rejects.

What this means if you hold a GMADA allotment or an LOI

Nothing changes today. GMADA's offices remained open through the search and its counters continued operating. Transfers, no dues certificates and allotments are not suspended by an investigation.

Section 11 is now a question worth asking on any parcel. Not because of this case, but because the case has made public an allegation about exactly that failure mode. For an LOI or a transfer, establishing whether a Section 11 notification was in force over the land at the date of the original instrument, and whether any Collector's exemption was obtained, is a check worth running.

Reserve prices are not a valuation benchmark. They never were a market price, and the basis on which they are set is now contested.

And the financing timetable is the thing to watch. The acquisitions this corridor is waiting on, in the Aerotropolis pockets and Sectors 87, 101 and 103, depend on money that has not yet been raised. That is the mechanism through which an investigation in Sector 62 could eventually reach a plot in Pocket B.

Nothing has been established against GMADA, against any officer, or against any person or company named in this report. Allegations by an investigating agency are allegations, the habeas corpus proceeding is live before the High Court, and the parties dispute each other's accounts of what happened during the search.

---

Sources

- The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, for Section 11 as the preliminary notification, the transaction bar at Section 11(4), the Collector's power to exempt on the owner's application, and the declaration under Section 19
- AAP to gherao ED teams at GMADA office amid raids in Mohali, alleges political pressure ahead of 2027 Punjab Polls, The Tribune, 24 September 2026, for the start of the search on Tuesday morning and for the files under examination, including money laundering, change of land use, land acquisition and the bid to raise ₹15,000 crore through a merchant banker
- ED searches 26 locations in Tirupati Infra money laundering case, alleges GMADA land irregularities, ANI, 24 September 2026, for the agency's own statement: the allegation on Letters of Intent and transfer deeds executed despite Section 11 notifications, the allegation that reserve prices of the unsold land bank were engineered downward at an estimated cost of nearly ₹10,000 crore, the Warrant Officer's attendance at about 2.50am, the officers' responses on detention and conditions, and the agency's account of offices remaining operational
- ED searches: High Court appoints warrant officer after Punjab govt seeks intervention, ThePrint, 24 September 2026, for the premises searched including GMADA, Principal Secretary Vikas Garg and a Delhi-based realty company, and for the searches at the Sector 39 residence and at the premises of the nephew of minister Hardeep Singh Mundian
- HC orders Punjab govt to pay Rs 55k for warrant officer's appointment to review ED's GMADA raids, ThePrint, 24 September 2026, for the 26 premises across Delhi, Mohali, Chandigarh, Panchkula and Ludhiana, the firms named, the search of former GMADA principal administrator Rajiv Gupta, the ₹55,000 direction, and the ED's counsel
- Punjab govt moves HC against ED raids; court-appointed warrant officer to submit report today, The Hawk, 24 September 2026, for the searches being conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the scope covering land acquisition, change of land use and financial concessions to private entities, the figure exceeding ₹100 crore, and the party's response
- ED raids GMADA: Scuffle breaks out as AAP protests against probe; ED concludes raids after 36 hours, PTC News, 24 September 2026, for the protest leadership, the attempt to enter the building, the damage to ED vehicles, and the timings of the protest and the conclusion of the search