Truth behind sealing

FORMER chief justice of India, Y
K Sabharwal, who unleashed a
sealing drive against small-time
neighbourhood shops in Delhi,
has close links with leading mall
developers.
One of the biggest mall
builders of the country, Business
Park Town Planners (BPTP), is a
business partner of Sabharwal's
sons Chetan and Nitin.
BPTP’s promoter and chairman,
Kabul Chawla, and his wife
Anjali, are directors in
Sabharwals’ company Pawan
Impex Pvt Ltd, which has its registered
office at the ex-CJ's
residence at 3/81, Punjabi Bagh,
as reported by MiD DAY on May
2. Pawan Impex, along with two
other firms, earlier had its registered
office at 6, Moti Lal Nehru
Park, the official residence of
Sabharwal when he was a
Supreme Court judge.
While Kabul Chawla became
a director in Pawan Impex on
October 23, 2004, his wife Anjali
was taken on board on February
12, 2005. Sabharwal joined the
Supreme Court on January 28,
2000 and went on to become the
chief justice of India on
November 2, 2005.
BPTP, with a paid up capital
of Rs 232 crore, has developed
landmark malls, including CTC
at Najafgarh Road, CBD at
Surajmal Vihar in East Delhi and
Shop-in Park, Shalimar Bagh,
besides several other commercial
and residential complexes.
MNCs everywhere
It is also coming up with malls
and commercial complexes in
Faridabad, Gurgaon and NOIDA.
The company is headquartered
at the DCM building at
Barakhamba Road while its marketing
office is in M-11 Middle
Circle, in Connaught Place.
Curiously, the virtual who’s
who of multi-national companies
are among the clients of BPTP.
These include Mc Donald's,
Levis, Lee, Adidas, Nike, Pepe
Jeans, Woodland, Benetton, Lee
Cooper and Biba. This makes the
association between the ex-CJ's
family and BPTP all the more significant.
There had been charges from
traders and political parties that
MNCs and mall developers were
behind the sealing drive as they
wanted to consolidate their position
in the Indian markets by
wiping out neighbourhood shops
and forcing the consumers to
rely on their posh, and more
expensive, outlets in malls.
Thousands of shops were
sealed on Sabharwal’s order,
while the government squirmed
at the prospect of traders turning
against it.
The Congress eventually
faced a humiliating defeat in the
MCD elections.