Court filings in Manesar land case add M3M promoter Roop Bansal as accused

The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed four chargesheets in the Manesar land acquisition case, naming Roop Bansal, a promoter of the M3M Group, as an accused. The agency filed the chargesheets on 6 November 2026 before the court of Special CBI Judge Vijayant Sehgal in Panchkula. The matter is next listed for hearing on 11 December 2026.

What the CBI alleges

The case concerns about 912 acres of land in Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnaula villages in Gurugram district. According to the CBI's 2018 chargesheet, the Haryana government issued an acquisition notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act on 27 August 2004, for an Industrial Model Township. A Section 6 notification followed, dated 25 August 2005. An order dated 24 August 2007 released the land from acquisition.

The agency alleges that private builders, in connivance with public servants, bought about 350 acres from farmers at Rs 20-25 lakh per acre, even though the prevailing market value was considerably higher. It further alleges that the release order was issued to benefit builders and their agents rather than the original landowners. Licences and change of land use approvals were allegedly granted for about 260 acres to builders who had bought the land from farmers. The 2018 chargesheet put the loss to Haryana farmers at roughly Rs 1,500 crore.

These are allegations made by the investigating agency. No court has recorded a finding against Roop Bansal in this case, and no conviction has been reported.

The company's response and the accused

M3M has denied wrongdoing. In its statement, the company said the licence in question was granted by the government many years ago to a company that is no longer part of the M3M Group. It said the licence was granted after due process and scrutiny by the competent authority. Since the matter is before court, the company said it would not be appropriate to comment on its merits.

Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is among those named in the 2018 chargesheet. Hooda has denied wrongdoing and has called the case political vendetta. The Supreme Court has granted stays that affected proceedings against some of the accused, including Hooda and certain former bureaucrats. In January this year, the Special CBI Court framed charges against several accused individuals and companies, which opened the way for trial.

Roop Kumar Bansal, a director of M3M, has also been named in separate proceedings. In June 2023 the Enforcement Directorate arrested him in a money laundering case linked to transactions between the M3M Group and the IREO Group. The ED alleged that about Rs 400 crore was routed from IREO through several layers of shell companies. In October 2026, a Delhi court upheld cheating and criminal conspiracy proceedings against M3M India Private Limited, its promoters and others in a separate alleged Rs 450 crore land fraud case brought by MGF Developments Ltd, which concerns nearly 31 acres in Chauma village in Gurugram. These matters are separate from the Manesar case.

What it means for buyers

A chargesheet is the document by which an investigating agency places its case before a court. It is an accusation at this stage, and it does not by itself change a project's registration or the terms of a sale agreement.

Buyers who have bought from an M3M-branded project may check two things. The first is the exact legal entity named in their sale agreement, because the M3M brand covers several companies. The second is whether that entity's project is registered with the Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority, and under which registration number.

• Check the company name in your sale agreement against the registration details on the regulator's website.
• Track the next hearing on 11 December 2026 before the Special CBI Court in Panchkula.
• Watch for any court order on the scrutiny of the new filings, which the court is expected to take up at that hearing.

The next step in the Manesar case is the scrutiny of the four new chargesheets and the documents filed with them at the hearing on 11 December 2026.