Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached two flats and a parcel of land in Thane, of value of Rs 11.35 crore held by Shiv Sena leader Pratap Sarnaik under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a case related to the National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL) fraud. Earlier in this case, assets amounting to Rs 3242.67 crore have been attached. The value of total attached assets in this case now stands at Rs 3254.02 crore, the agency officials informed on Friday.
The ED had initiated a money laundering investigation on the basis of an FIR registered on September 30, 2013, by the Economic Offence Wing, Mumbai Police in the NSEL case, its Directors and key officials of NSEL, 25 defaulters of NSEL and others.
In this case, the accused persons had allegedly hatched a criminal conspiracy to defraud the investors, induced them to trade on the platform of NSEL, created forged documents like bogus warehouse receipts, falsified the accounts and thereby committed criminal breach of trust in respect Rs 5600 crore of approximately 13000 investors.
Investigation conducted under PMLA revealed that the money collected from various investors were diverted by borrowers or trading members of NSEL for other activities like investment into real estate, repayment of outstanding debts and other activities, the agency officials stated.
"Investigation further revealed that Aastha Group, one of the defaulting members of NSEL has liability of Rs 242.66 crore towards NSEL. Aastha Group had diverted Rs 21.74 crore to M/s Vihang Aastha Housing Projects LLP in the period of 2012-13. Out of the total amount of Rs 21.74 crore received by M/s Vihang Aastha Housing Projects LLP, Rs 11.35 crore was transferred to M/s Vihang Enterprises & M/s Vihang Infrastructure Pvt. Limited, both firms are controlled by Pratap Sarnaik and his family members. On the basis of money trail, scrutiny and identification assets consisting of two flats and a parcel of land in Thane, amounting to total Rs 11.35 crore held by Pratap Sarnaik, valued at Rs 11.35 crore have been provisionally attached under PMLA. The other remaining amount of Rs 10.50 crore originating from Aastha Group was paid to one Yogesh Deshmukh. This amount of Rs 10.50 crore has already been attached under PMLA and the same has been confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority (PMLA)," the agency claimed in a statement.
Shiv Sena leaders who are currently facing probe from the ED are Anandrao Adsul, Pratap Sarnaik, Anil Parab and Bhavana Gawali. On Tuesday, the ED had provisionally attached immovable properties worth Rs 6.45 crore in the case of M/s Pushpak Bullion, one of the Group companies of Pushpak Group. The said attachment includes 11 Residential flats in Neelambari project in Thane belonging to Shree Saibaba Grihanirmiti Pvt. Ltd (owned and controlled by Shridhar Madhav Patankar, brother-in-law of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray).
