BENGALURU: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had asked Mantri Developers to demolish massive structures it had built, violating the buffer zones around lakes and rajakaluves in Bengaluru. It imposed a whopping penalty of Rs 117 crore on the builder.
Just a few days ago the Karnataka High Court had quashed criminal proceedings its founder and Managing Director Sushil Mantri pending against him before a lower court. He was accused of causing damage to the life and property of neighbouring residents in Kothanur, next to the Mantri Web City project.
A certain Jeevanesan Gomez, Secretary of Esther Harmony Layout, had filed a complaint with the Kothanur Police Station, alleging that on March 26, 2014, Mabel, a resident, was injured after a glass door got damaged due to the uncontrolled rock blasting at the construction site of Mantri Web City.
Following this the criminal cases for the offence under Section 337 of IPC were registered against Sushil Mantri, and subsequently, after completing the investigation, the chargesheet was filed for the offences under Sections 337 and 188 read with Section 34 of IPC.
The accused, Sushil Mantri, had later approached the high court seeking to quash the criminal cases on the ground that in the absence of any specific allegation, not even a prima facie case has been made out against him for having committed the offences.
While relying upon various judgments, Sushil's advocate had argued before the court that in order to create a vicarious liability against the Managing Director of a Company, it is essential that the complainant must allege a specific act of commission or omission against the Managing Director.
Another PIL
In 2014, several residents of Esther Harmony Layout, located behind the Mantri Web City, Kothanur post, had approached the High Court to file a PIL, seeking directions for inspection of the ongoing construction activities and also to make a survey and assessment of the environmental impact of the mega projects of Mantri Web City, Kothanur, Bangalore along with other ‘prayers’ to the court.
