On Wednesday, a Delhi court issued bailable warrants against former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir for not appearing before it despite being summoned repeatedly in a case related to alleged cheating of flat buyers in a real estate project. In a complaint, 17 flat buyers accused that they had paid around ₹1.98 crore for booking flats in an upcoming project at Ghaziabad’s Indirapuram area in 2011 but the housing project did not take off.
Gambhir was a director and brand ambassador in a joint project of Rudra Buildwell Reality Pvt Ltd and H R Infracity Pvt Ltd, against which a case was lodged in 2016 for allegedly duping people of ₹1.98 crore on the pretext of booking apartments in the housing project.
Describing the same, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Manish Khurana said, “Considering the fact that accused Gautam Gambhir has not been appearing in this case repeatedly and he has not appeared even despite dismissal of his exemption application on the last date of hearing, therefore, issue bailable warrant for Rs 10,000 against the accused with one surety in the like amount for next date of hearing.”
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The court has put up the matter for further hearing on January 24. The complainants had alleged that “the project was extensively promoted and advertised and Gambhir, as the brand ambassador, helped in attracting and inviting buyers to invest in the project”.
One of the finest Indian openers, Gambhir is fondly remembered for his two absolutely heroic knocks in the finals of the T20I World Cup 2007 and the 2011 ODI World Cup respectively. He scored 75 off 54 against Pakistan in the summit clash of World T20 in 2017 which India won by 5 runs. He was once again the highest run-scorer for India in the final of the 2011 World Cup scoring 97 runs off 122 deliveries.
Gambhir recently announced retirement from international cricket drawing curtains on a nearly two-decade-long professional career. He played his last competitive game against Andhra for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy. He signed off after representing India in 58 Test matches, 147 ODIs, and 37 T20Is. The Delhi batsman scored 4154, 5238 and 932 runs respectively in the three formats.
