A court here has directed a company owned by Haryana politician Kuldeep Bishnoi to deposit Rs 3.75 crore towards use and occupation charges of a leased property.
According to the lease deed, the property -- a farmhouse in Rajokari village -- was taken on lease by the defendant company, M/s Seth Enterprises Pvt Ltd, specifically for residential use by its managing director Kuldeep Bishnoi and his family on a rent of Rs 4.25 lakh per month for a period of two years, the suit said.
But the lease agreement dated May 20, 2013 ended on April 14, 2015 and despite receiving two legal notices, the possession of the property was not handed over to the owner and plaintiff, Nimitaya Properties Ltd, nor was any charge paid for its use and occupation, it said.
The suit said in gross violation of the terms and conditions of the lease, the defendant company was carrying out political activities on the premises and it was also addressed as the headquarters of political party -- the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC).
Additional District Judge Satyabrata Panda, in a recent judgement, directed the defendant company to deposit the amounts for use and occupation charges at the rate of Rs 4.25 lakh per month plus an increase of 15 per cent thereupon, from April 15, 2015 to April 14, 2017.
"Similarly, further amounts be calculated with a 15 per cent increase every two years till November 15, 2020, and the defendant is directed to deposit the aforesaid amounts in the court within two months,” the court said.
The total amount comes to Rs 3,75,00,568.
The court, meanwhile, allowed Bishnoi's plea for deleting him from the array of parties. It also said that the suit was not barred by the Delhi Land Reforms Act.
Earlier, the court in its order on September 3, 2020, directed the defendants (M/s Seth Enterprises Pvt. Ltd and Kuldeep Bishnoi) to vacate the said property and also appointed a local commissioner to hand over the possession to the owner.
The defendants handed over possession of the property to the owners in presence of the commissioner on October 15, 2020.
Advocates Sumit Gahlot and T S Thakran, representing the plaintiff, said the property was leased out for a fixed period of two years, which was illegally retained and subsequent to the filing of the present suit, the court had ordered eviction and paying the rent for five years.
The HJC was floated by Bishnoi's father and former chief minister Bhajan Lal in 2007. The party merged with the Congress in 2016.
Bishnoi, the younger son of Bhajan Lal, resigned as MLA from the Adampur constituency seat in Haryana and switched from the Congress to the BJP in August.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
