Ornate Space Private Limited promoter builder Vijay Machinder moved the special PMLA court seeking bail in a Rs 500.74 crore money laundering case.
Machinder's lawyer Sandeep Karnik had on Wednesday pleaded that there is no need to continue to keep him in custody. The court has asked ED to submit its reply on the bail plea.
It is pleaded that his company, Ornate Space Private Limited is already in liquidation. Besides, properties to the tune of Rs 7.04 crore belonging to him and his family are already attached along with five cars valued at Rs 1.86 crore.
Machinder had refuted the claim of money laundering, claiming that “None of the financial institutions have alleged that the funds have been misused and in any case, the funds according to the investigation done by the ED has been majorly used for clearing the earlier liability and therefore, it cannot be said that there is any money laundering as defined under the Act.”
He also denied the allegations that one flat was sold to three different buyers, saying, “There was a change of plan by the authorities because of which the flat number got interchanged and therefore there is no selling of flats to third persons.
ED has recently submitted a prosecution complaint against Machinder alleging, “Machinder lured flat buyers and had received advance booking against allotment/ sale of flats/units in Oshiwara project. He had also sold the same flat to various buyers thereby defrauding them. The proceeds collected from flat buyers is nothing but proceeds of crime.”
The agency has claimed that Machinder has collected around Rs 100 crore from the flat buyers on the promise of delivering possession of flats within three years from issuance of commencement certificate, which was given on May 6, 2015. However, till date the possession has not been handed over.
The agency has claimed that, "Machinder had diverted and siphoned funds to his entity namely M/s Ornate Developer which did not have any business activity after 2010. He had also utilized the funds for personal expenses, cash withdrawal, purchasing vehicles, investment in GYM business etc. which clearly shows his intentions were never to deliver the flats to either UTI Employees Society or flat buyers."
Besides, the agency has claimed that Machinder had obtained loans from Non-banking financial companies for the Oshiwara project out of which approximately Rs 400.29 crores is still outstanding. The agency claimed that the outstanding amount is nothing but proceeds of crime generated over a period of years by layering one loan by another loan for evergreening.
The agency has pleaded that their further investigation is still in progress and would submit a supplementary complaint once the investigation is concluded.
