Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached movable and immovable properties worth Rs 113.5 crore linked to tainted builder Lalit Tekchandani and his associates in the money laundering case linked to housing frauds that affected hundreds of flat buyers in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. The builder is facing multiple fraud cases by Mumbai and Navi Mumbai police.
The properties attached by ED under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, includes a villa at Aamby Valley, various residential and business premises in Mumbai, land parcels in Raigad district and fixed deposits having aggregate value of Rs 113.5 Crore, the probe agency said. ED has already frozen the investments in shares, mutual funds, fixed deposits worth Rs. 43 Crore in this case.
The agency is probing a money laundering case against Tekchandani on the basis of First Information Reports (FIR) at Chembur police station in Mumbai and Taloja police station in Navi Mumbai.
The FIRs were registered against Tekchandani and his family and associates in a housing fraud committed against prospective home buyers in connection with a project in Taloja, Navi Mumbai. The case in Chembur police station later got transferred to the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai police.
The said housing project is called Hex City/Clan City, which was being developed by Supreme Construction and Developer Pvt Ltd in Taloja. The FIR says the company, is represented by Tekchandani and others. ED investigation revealed that the company collected huge funds of over Rs 400 crore from more than 1,700 home buyers in the Taloja housing project. Delays in the project left these home buyers in the lurch, without homes or refunds.
Lalit Tekchandani was arrested by ED on March 18 under the provisions of the PMLA, 2002 and is presently under judicial custody. His interrogation has revealed that the funds received from homebuyers were siphoned off by the builder for personal gains and creation of assets in various names, including family members, the ED said.
The central agency's investigation so far has revealed that Tekchandani alienated the properties of M/s Supreme Construction and Developers Pvt Ltd despite his exit from the ownership and directorship of the company with the assistance of other accused persons.
ED investigation has also revealed that accused persons were transferring the receivables of the Company into the account of associate entity thereby siphoning off the funds, ED stated in a statement.
