IREO-AIPL Fraud FIR and the Oberoi Gurugram Land Dispute

For anyone tracking Oberoi Realty's much-discussed entry into Delhi-NCR, the story of its Sector 58 Gurugram project has, over the past two years, come to read less like a routine launch and more like a courtroom drama, one whose latest chapter has just been written by the Department of Town and Country Planning, Haryana. At the heart of the matter lies a 14.8-acre parcel on Golf Course Extension Road that began life as IREO's Grand Hyatt Residences and has since been reborn, under Oberoi's stewardship, as Three Sixty North.

The trouble traces back to June 2024, when an FIR was registered against nine people, including IREO Group Managing Director Lalit Goyal and Oberoi Realty Limited Chairman and Managing Director Vikas Oberoi, under various sections of cheating, criminal breach of trust and forgery, filed at the DLF Phase 2 police station following a complaint by Advance India Projects Limited (AIPL). The complaint alleged that IREO and Oberoi had conspired to defraud allottees who had invested funds since 2013, thus not only deceiving investors but also defrauding the AIPL Group. AIPL's central grievance was rooted in an earlier rescue attempt: caught in litigation and unable to proceed with the project, IREO's leadership had approached Advance India Projects Limited in July 2020, requesting AIPL take over two troubled projects, including the Grand Hyatt Residences in Gurugram, under a Memorandum of Understanding signed on March 2, 2021. AIPL claims it committed real resources to that rescue only to see IREO walk away and hand the same land to another developer, alleging in its FIR that after various issues of IREO ended with the AIPL agreement, the company entered into an agreement with Oberoi Group in bad faith and in violation of the terms and conditions of the agreement, causing AIPL a loss of thousands of crores.

The numbers cited in the original complaint were eye-catching even by Gurugram's turbulent real-estate standards: AIPL claimed that IREO Group embezzled approximately Rs 1,777 crore and sent it out of the country, adding that about Rs 1,376 crore was recovered as advances from the allottees. Investigators had already been circling IREO before this complaint surfaced, and several cases were registered against IREO Group and it was investigated by the Enforcement Directorate and later the group's chief director and accused Lalit Goyal was also arrested. Notably, police made clear that the FIR pertained to the same project for which Oberoi Realty Limited had recently informed the stock exchanges of its entry into the Delhi-NCR luxury segment by entering into a joint venture with IREO - a direct link between the criminal complaint and Oberoi's NCR ambitions.

The legal proceedings did not stay static for long. Within weeks of the FIR, the Supreme Court stayed criminal proceedings against IREO Group Managing Director Lalit Goyal and Oberoi Realty Limited Chairman and Managing Director Vikas Oberoi over the allegations, with the bench noting that the question of whether the filing of the second complaint would amount to an abuse of process and whether the complainant approached the court with unclean hands required further examination. That stay effectively paused the criminal track even as the underlying commercial dispute over the land itself continued to simmer.

Meanwhile, the project moved forward on the ground. Records show Oberoi Realty executed an agreement for sale with Ireo Residences Company and others for acquiring land admeasuring approximately 14.8 acres at Sector 58, Gurugram, Haryana, for a consideration of up to Rs 597 crore, plus a certain area in the project for existing homeowners and others. Oberoi has since positioned this as a flagship NCR debut: Oberoi Realty plans to invest Rs 6,000 crore on the Gurugram project, with the first phase comprising about 832 apartments built at an investment of Rs 4,000 crore. Pricing reflects the ultra-luxury positioning, with the project launched at Rs 35,000 per square foot excluding GST and other charges, with a bare shell apartment starting from Rs 19 crore and going up to Rs 60 crore, offered in 3 BHK plus Studio, 4 BHK plus Studio, duplex and penthouse configurations ranging from around 5,500 sq ft to over 13,000 sq ft, across six towers in phase one.

The dispute resurfaced more sharply in mid-2026 when AIPL took the matter to the Punjab and Haryana High Court, this time targeting the regulatory approvals themselves rather than just the criminal allegations. AIPL's writ petition claimed that Haryana authorities unlawfully permitted the transfer, commercial monetisation and regularisation of development rights for the project in Sector 58, Gurugram, violating the FDI Policy, FEMA and the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, and sought quashing of Licence No. 69 of 2025 and related approvals granted to Oberoi Realty. It further pointed to the murkier corporate backdrop, noting that certain IREO Group entities were under investigation by agencies including the ED, the SFIO and the EOW over alleged diversion and siphoning of funds, money laundering and misuse of homebuyers' money. In its order of July 7, 2026, the High Court directed the Director, Town and Country Planning, Haryana, to decide AIPL's complaint after hearing all stakeholders, and, pending that decision, directed respondents including Oberoi Realty not to make any fresh allotments or create third-party rights in the project, citing the project's scale and the interests of existing and prospective allottees.

That pause has now lifted. In its ruling, the DTCP rejected AIPL's representation, stating that it was without merit and that no action was required under the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975, thereby upholding the validity of Licence No. 69 of 2025 and the developer change approval. Throughout the High Court proceedings, Oberoi maintained that the case did not disrupt business as usual, with the company having earlier stated that the High Court proceedings did not affect existing sales and that construction activity was not stayed.

For prospective buyers eyeing Three Sixty North, the practical takeaway is nuanced. The regulatory authority that grants and governs development licences in Haryana has now examined AIPL's objections and found no merit in them, which removes a significant cloud from the project's paper trail. That said, prudent buyers should still ask their lawyer to review the chain of title, the current licence status, and any pending appeal AIPL may file against the DTCP order, since litigation of this scale in Gurugram's real estate market has historically taken years, not months, to fully settle.