By Stefanos Evripidou
A SEMI-government organisation which initiated criminal proceedings against an Indian investor trying to inject €5 million in to a Latchi tourist resort yesterday lost its case and was ordered to pay the investor’s legal fees.
The Council for Registration and Control of Contractors (CRCC) initiated proceedings against Zening Resort in Latchi village in the Polis Chrysochous area for allegedly hiring a non-licensed contractor to do renovation work.
The CRCC initially tried to secure an interim injunction to stop renovation work at Zening (formerly the Elia holiday village) but failed, once it transpired that the hired contractor did have a licence, something which should have been obvious to the semi-government body since they are the ones responsible for registering contractors.
The CRCC then asked for a series of adjournments, to prepare a new charge against Zening, going to the resort twice for inspections in an effort to find grounds for a new affidavit against the resort.
However, the Paphos District Court yesterday threw out the semi-government body’s request to submit new charges, ordering the Council to pay all of Zening’s legal fees.
The man behind the effort to turn Zening into a sustainable tourism project, Ajay Goyal, yesterday welcomed the decision, saying it “felt very good” to see the court acknowledge that the “frivolous charges had no grounds at all” and order that their legal fees be paid by the CRCC.
“It was very clear to the judge that the charges were filed with the intention to harass, they had no basis,” he said.
“We knew we were going to win eventually but we didn’t expect it to be thrown out (yesterday),” said Goyal, noting that the case “collapsed on its own false basis”.
Goyal described the Council’s efforts to charge Zening for using an unlicenced contractor, even though a licenced contractor was used, and then when this failed, to find new charges as “witch hunt”.
“Once you file legal proceedings, you can’t go on a witch hunt, trying to find something to stick a second or third time round,” he said.
The Indian investor complained to the Cyprus Mail earlier this month that his €5 million sustainable tourism project was being consistently thwarted by a raid on bank accounts, capital controls, frequent government inspections on site, fines, lawsuits, bad press, and “bullying”.
Following a detailed report by the Sunday Mail on June 2, Goyal was invited to the Presidential Palace, where he met Undersecretary to the President, Constantinos Petrides to explain the trials and tribulations facing “real investors” in Cyprus, not simply buyers of real estate.
Zening was meant to open in May for the 2013 tourist season but the project was pushed back after the Eurogroup decision last March, which saw Zening investors lose half a million euros in lost revenue as a result of the delay.
They expect to lose a further €2m from the haircut on deposits in Bank of Cyprus and the former Laiki Bank.
Goyal originally attracted €15m to invest in the area in two phases, but €10m has since been pulled out following the Eurogroup decision to raid bank deposit.
The 47-year-old investor said he has also had to spend a lot of time countering allegations of supposed illegalities and irregularities made by the Paphos contractors’ association, headed by Antonis Petrides.
Petrides was heard numerous times on local radio claiming that the tourism project was riddled with illegalities, allegedly employing dozens of illegal and undocumented workers, and operating without a building permit.
Goyal said after Petrides made the allegations, he became the target of regular inspections from the police, labour ministry, and other government departments.
The investor said yesterday his legal team was in the process of collecting evidence to sue Petrides for slander and allegedly conducting a smear campaign against him.
