Ranka amusement park lease turns out to be a near sham

Rajesh Jhunjunwala arrested for duping RMD, two Gangtok entrepreneurs

RMD officials complain Crime Branch against fraud businessman who won the bid for
Ranka amusement park

source: sikkim express

GANGTOK, August 9: The Khangchendzonga Tourist Villa-cum-socio cultural and amusement park constructed in Ranka at a cost of Rs. 55.6 crores, has stumbled into another controversy with the police arresting one Rajen Jhunjunwala accused of have conned the authorities to bag the contract for running the show at mega tourism project.

The Crime Branch of Sikkim Police has taken Rajesh Jhunjunwala under custody after the State Rural Management Development department alerted the police. He was arrested by Sikkim Vigilance police at Rangpo check-post yesterday and handed over to the Crime Branch.

Sources inform that Jhunjunwala, alleged to be a master con in the country, was trying to flee Sikkim in a guise of a labourer.

One person has been arrested in suspicion and the RMD officials are yet to identify the arrested person as Rajesh Jhunjunwala, said sources.

It may be recalled that a company based at Kolkata and purportedly run by Jhunjunwala had been accorded the contract earlier in July to maintain and operate the Khangchendzonga tourist villa and amusement park for an annual lease amount of Rs. 3.06 crores.

State RMD secretary AK Ganeriwala told Sikkim Express that the department had recently come to know about the fake nature of the company propped up by Jhunjunwala.

“We came to about that the company was a fraudulent entity only two days ago. However, the agreement (for the Ranka tourist park) was yet to be signed. We noticed there were many lacunae and loop holes in the bank statement of the company and we immediately informed the Crime Branch. So far, there have been no money transactions with Jhunjunwala”, said Ganeriwala.

“Timely action of the RMD department prevented in major loss to the State government”, said Ganeriwala.

It is suspected that the accused person could have used the legal agreement of the State government as a basis to mortgage the Ranka tourist villa with banks for crores of rupees and vanish with the bank money.

According to preliminary information pieced together from various sources, Jhunjunwala had camped in Gangtok for the past six months projecting himself as a big businessman running various companies including a tea plantation and an export firm.

While trying to con the RMD department on the Ranka tourist park, Jhunjunwala was also successful in duping a couple of entrepreneurs here in Gangtok. He is alleged to have duped lakhs of rupees from Hotel Rajghir here at Panihouse and a stationary shop at Deorali by showing his ‘assets’ on paper.

It was due to the efforts of the hotel owner that the master con was arrested at Rangpo while trying to flee in the guise of a labourer.

It is informed that Jhunjunwala had taken Rs. 1.4 lakhs from the Rajghir Hotel owner along with another Rs. 40,000 for TDR form to take Saramsa Gardens on a ‘lease’. He already owed Rs. 1.2 lakhs to the hotel owner as rent for the flat he was staying.

The problem is that the hotel owner reportedly does not have any credible evidence on the loans and dues as he had given them to Jhunjunwala on blind trust. The hotel owner had fallen for the documents ‘certified’ by chartered accountants showed by Jhunjunwala portraying him as the owner of a multi-crore firm.

Jhunjunwala had also showed income tax receipt forms where he had ‘paid’ taxes to the worth of Rs. 5.2 crores to the IT department.

Belatedly realizing that he had been duped, the hotel owner had lodged an FIR with the Gangtok Sadar police station.

Jhunjunwala had also played a similar run with the Derorali stationary shop. It is alleged that he took household items like computers and furniture and personal loans totally to Rs. 4.5 lakhs from the shop without any payment. He had managed to convince the shop that he was a multi-crore businessman and he had no immediate cash at hand due to technical problems in ‘wire-transfer’ from the bank.
The shop owner has already lodged a diary with the Gangtok Sadar police.
Jhunjunwala is also alleged to have employed several youth with handsome monthly salaries but so far, the youth have not seen any money.

Though Rajesh Jhunjunwala (if that is his real name) efforts to dupe the RMD department has been quashed early, questions still loom large over the opening of the Khangchendzonga tourist villa-cum-social cultural and amusement park.
The amusement park which had been inaugurated by President Pratibha Patil on April 15is still not open for the general public and it had been hoped that the park would open its door to the public here after the department had zeroed in into a company on a lease agreement.

The department did found a company after tender process but as it turns out now, the company was a bogus entity floated by Jhunjunwala and the opening of the park has sunk into another lengthy tendering-selection quagmire