Hiranandani brothers face arrest over alleged PF scam

The Hiranandani brothers, prominent Mumbai-based real estate developers, have found themselves in trouble with the Central Bureau of Investigations over an alleged provident fund (PF) scam. The CBI (anti-corruption branch) says Niranjan and Surendra Hirnani face arrest for not appearing before the agency, and issued instructions to airports to prevent them from leaving the country.

The CBI has issued so-called look-out notices to all immigration points, instructing them to inform CBI, ACB, Mumbai in case Niranjan and Surendra try to move out of the country. The action comes in connection with an alleged Rs168 crore fraud involving provident funds.

The CBI said in a statement on Tuesday that it had been calling both Niranjan and Surendra for investigation for the last 15 days but "both of them avoided the investigation and did not turn up before the investigating officer".

The agency had registered a case against the former Regional Provident Fund Commissioner K S Arya, the Hiranandani brothers and eight others on charges of cheating the Employees Provident Fund Department by not paying the PF dues of construction workers employed with the Hiranandani Group.

The CBI had also told the family members of the duo but they also did not inform it about their whereabouts. CBI said the case is in active investigation to record the statements of all those named in the FIR as the accused and witnesses. The ACB had registered the case on 29 March 2008.

It was alleged in FIR that K S Arya, the then regional provident fund commissioner-I, Bandra, Mumbai; Niranjan and Surendra, both directors of Hiranandani Properties and eight others cheated the employees provident fund department by not paying the PF dues of workers employed through contractors in various projects.