The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached 25 immovable assets valued at around Rs40.39 crore belonging to real-estate group Supertech Group of Companies and its directors across two states. The attachment is part of the agency’s money-laundering probe based on cases registered by the police in three states.
Multiple cases registered across states
The agency’s probe was initiated on the basis of multiple cases registered by the Delhi police, the Haryana police and the Uttar Pradesh police over cheating allegations. It is alleged that the real-estate group and its directors, as part of a criminal conspiracy, cheated prospective homebuyers by collecting funds as advance against booked flats located in their real estate projects, said ED sources in Mumbai.
The accused entity, however, allegedly failed to adhere to its agreed obligations to provide the possession of the flats on time, and therefore defrauded the general public as per the First Information Reports, the sources said.
Funds misappropriated and diverted for purchase of land
The ED’s probe revealed that Supertech Limited and its group companies, apart from allegedly collecting funds from homebuyers, had also taken project-specific term loans from banks /financial institutions for construction of projects/flats.
“These funds were misappropriated and diverted for purchase of land in the name of other group companies, which were again pledged as collateral to borrow funds from banks /financial institutions,” an ED source said.
The agency probe also disclosed that the group allegedly defaulted on its payments to banks/ financial institutions, with around Rs1,500 crore of such loans having turned into Non-Performing Assets (NPA). The assets attached provisionally on Tuesday by the agency are at Rudrapur, Uttarakhand and Meerut Mall, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.
