The Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA) has accused former AITA Trust chairman Anil Khanna of “fraudulently” executing agreements that enabled the Trust to receive crores of rupees from the association’s stadium rental revenue, while land transactions between the Trust and companies owned by him have also come under scrutiny after he paid Rs 1.60 crore as interest for the delayed transfer of land.

Anil Khanna, responding to the allegations, said that he indeed paid such an amount to the Trust but it was not for any “wrongdoing”.

Khanna paid the money to AITA Trust for selling his land in Gurugram — where once National Tennis Academy stood — through his companies RLF Limited and ULIL Limited, but did not transfer the ownership.

Documents accessed by PTI show that during his tenure as Trust chairman, Khanna oversaw the purchase of land in Gurugram from RLF Ltd and ULIL Ltd, companies promoted by him and now, associated with members of his family.

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The transactions have drawn attention because Khanna was heading the Trust when it acquired the land from his own companies.

The issue resurfaced after Khanna recently deposited Rs 1.60 crore with the Trust.

Current AITA Trust chairman Dr Anil Jain told PTI that the amount was not a penalty for any financial irregularity, but “interest” recovered from Khanna because the Trust had paid for the land years before its transfer and registration were completed recently.

“The Trust had paid for the land earlier but the registration happened much later. Since the land transfer was delayed, the Trust recovered interest of around Rs 1.60 crore from Mr Khanna. It was recovery of interest and not recovery for any bungling,” Jain said.

Jain said the Trust had constituted an internal committee to examine the land transactions, and based on its findings no further action was taken against Khanna.

Khanna said “some mistakes” happened during his tenure but he never misused the funds.

“The Trust had been using my land free of cost for nearly 15 years for its academy, no one saw conflict of interest then. Anyway, later, the Trust decided through proper resolutions to purchase portions of that land at rates below the prevailing market value.

“Since the registration happened much later, the Trust asked me to pay interest for the delay in transferring the land, and I paid about Rs 1.60 crore to close the issue. It was not an admission of wrongdoing,” he said.

“I had paid a few salaries for DLTA staff from AITA Trust because I considered DLTA and AITA Trust as one entity, never thought such a thing would be presented in this manner.

“Then they said that I travelled in business class when I was supposed to fly only in economy. I was fed up with all this and decided to pay everything back to Trust. I was feeling depressed and wanted it over.”

It has been learnt that initially, Trust owned two acres of land and in 2017, one acre was acquired from Khanna’s company RLF and Rs 2 crore was paid to Khanna’s company.

Asked why AITA Trust did not develop tennis courts on its own land and rather opted to use land belonging to RLF for tennis activities, Khanna said, “What do I say on that.”

It has been learnt an MoU was signed between AITA Trust and RLF Limited in 2018 with regards to National Tennis Academy.

NTA was shut post Covid but in 2021 AITA Trust bought more land from Khanna’s other company ULIL Limited for about 3 crore.

Responding to questions on conflict of interest, Khanna denied any impropriety.

“My interest in the transaction was fully disclosed. The purchases were approved through resolutions of the Trust and were in its interest because they consolidated land for the academy. There was no concealment,” he said.

Khanna also alleged that the controversy was being fuelled by “vendetta” ahead of the AITA elections and said neither he nor any member of his family intended to contest.

Published on Aug 04, 2026