Ex-CJI's sons pay Rs 89.75cr to buy Delhi house

Source:TNN, Apr 22, 2010, 04.12am IST

Tags:Delhi|Y K Sabharwal
NEW DELHI: Chetan Sabharwal and Nitin Sabharwal, the two sons of former chief justice of India Y K Sabharwal, have bought half of one of the most premium residential properties, 7 Sikandra Road, in the heart of Lutyens' Delhi. The other half of the property has been bought by the promoter and MD of real estate company BPTP, Kabul Chawla. The total deal is worth Rs 117 crore.

On Tuesday, the Sabharwal brothers and Chawla together paid Rs 89.75 crore as part payment for the property.
"Kabul Chawla has purchased 50% of this residential property in his personal capacity. This is not a joint property,"said a spokesperson in Kabul Chawla's office. It means that the Sabharwal brothers will have to pay separately Rs 58.5 crore to complete the deal.

The name of Chetan Sabharwal and Nitin Sabharwal had cropped up earlier for running their businesses from the then CJI’s official residence. Also, the government had while responding to an RTI application in April 2009 revealed that the CBI was investigating allotment of a piece of land in Noida to Sabharwal's daughter-in-law. The income-tax department is also investigating a South Delhi land deal by the Sabharwal brothers.

The part payment of Rs 89.75 crore for the 7 Sikandra Road bungalow deal has been made by the Sabharwal brothers and Chawla with the approval of a single-judge bench of Delhi high court. In fact, Triveni Infrastructure had bought the 2.70-acre property for Rs 117 crore in 2008 in a court supervised auction. Triveni paid Rs 29.25 crore — 25% of the total amount — upfront. But, it could not pay the rest — Rs 89.75 crore — on the due date.

Instead of paying the rest of the amount, Triveni Infrastructure filed a suit in the court praying that another company, Angle Infrabuild Private Ltd, be allowed to pay the balance with a penalty of Rs 5 crore. But as some of the original co-owners opposed the request, the court did not accept the offer. Meanwhile, the Sabharwal brothers approached the court saying they would pay the balance amount of Rs 89.75 crore of the original deal.

Following the payment made by them, the court ordered execution of the sale deed in the name of the Sabharwal brothers and their associate.

The rest of the amount — Rs 29.25 crore — which was paid by Triveni Infrastructure in 2008 will also be paid by the new set of buyers.