Mumbai: The officials of Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday had arrested Gopal Amarlal Thakur, Director of M/s Monarch Universal Group in a money laundering case involving an amount of more than Rs 50 crore. Thakur was produced before the Special PMLA court on Friday and was sent to ED custody till July 8. The agency sources claimed that Thakur had been involved in cases of allegedly cheating homebuyers keen on buying properties in his projects.
According to the agency, ED had initiated an investigation against the group on the basis of FIRs and charge sheets filed by Maharashtra Police under the provisions of IPC for cheating and defrauding flat buyers by collecting money from them and not registering the same in their names after sufficient time lapse.
During the probe, it was revealed that the said company and its directors sold flats to multiple persons. They also took loan from NBFC by mortgaging the sold flats without the knowledge of the customers who booked the same. It also came out in the investigation that the M/s Monarch Universal Group has diverted funds from the project accounts to different entities/ individuals and thus siphoned off the funds, the agency claimed in a statement.
In October 2017, Thakur and others were booked by the Kalamboli police for allegedly cheating a Dubai-based businessman and his relatives, who had booked around 17 flats worth Rs 4.55 crore. The buyers were told by the builder that the flats will be registered and allocated to them a year after booking, but this did not happen after which the victim approached the police.
In April 2017, an FIR was filed against Monarch’s partners wherein they were accused of cheating the complainant who had, in 2013, bought a shop from them and paid Rs 46 lakh but had neither got possession of the shop nor his money back. Gopal Thakur and two other persons involved were arrested by the Navi Mumbai Economic Offence Wing in October 2017 in the said case.
A police inspector working with the Special Branch of Mumbai Police in January this year had lodged a complaint with the Kharghar police against Thakur and others who promised a flat to him and duped him to the tune of Rs 50 lakh.
