ED Secures ₹6,189 Cr Property Restitution for Fraud Victims
ED Hyderabad obtains court approvals to restore ₹6,189 crore in attached assets to fraud victims, including Agri Gold and Musaddilal Jewellers cases
Hyderabad: For the first time in Telangana, officials from the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Hyderabad, who are probing a number of cases pertaining to financial irregularities, have focused on the victim's centricity in securing justice as per law. They have obtained court’s approvals for restitution of attached properties in four cases worth Rs 6,189 crore and restore them to all those who were duped by the companies.
The ED will proceed with similar restitutions in the near future, sources told Deccan Chronicle.
ED officials said that they had secured court approvals for auctioning of properties that they had attached. Sources said that this initiative would help victims who were duped by the accused companies, which had collected deposits from them.
As regards Agri Gold, ED officials attached properties worth Rs 3,339 crore, whose current market value is Rs 6,000 crore. All these properties will be restored to the firm’s customers.
In the case of Musaddilal Jewellers Pvt. Ltd, the ED has probed irregularities by way of huge cash deposits during demonetisation and indulging in a gold purchase scam by creating fake purchase and sales orders.
In an immediate follow-up action, the State Bank of India (SBI) filed restitution applications under Section 8(8) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, before the special PMLA court of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge, Nampally, for release of moveable properties that were seized by ED.
The Hyderabad zonal office of ED urged the court to release the seized amount to the rightful claimants like SBI. The court ordered release of moveable properties in the form of jewellery worth Rs 79.2 crore that was seized from the premises of Musaddilal Jewellers.
In an interesting case, ED officials had last December filed restitution application under Section 8(8) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 before the court for release of movable and immovable properties attached by the agency to the CID, Andhra Pradesh so that such attached properties could be restored to the victims of the Agri Gold Ponzi schemes under the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Protection of Depositors of Financial Establishments (APPDFE) Act, 1999.
Sources said that Agri Gold group had collected deposits from around 19 lakh customers and 32 lakh account holders in the name of real estate investment. Thousands of commission agents were engaged by the group to lure people. They managed to collect around Rs 6,380 crore from over 32 lakh investors.
Attached and restitution of properties
Nowhera Shaik: ED-Hyderabad officials have initiated the process of restitution of properties to investors of Heera Group of Companies, following directions of the Supreme Court. ED had attached properties to the tune of Rs 400 crore acquired out of proceeds of crime (POC) by Nowhera Shaik, Heera Group of companies and others. The court directed Shaik to deposit Rs 25 crore with ED within three months. The ED has mooted e-auction of two properties in Hyderabad belonging to her.
Musaddilal Jewellers Pvt. Ltd: A money laundering case has been registered against Musaddilal Jewellers Pvt. Ltd. and others who had deposited more than Rs 111 crore immediately after demonetisation of high value notes. ED investigation revealed that demonetised currency was deposited under the pretext of receipt of advance money from around 6,000 fake customers by creating fake invoices of less than Rs 2 lakh each. The ED finished the process of restitution of properties worth Rs 79.20 crore to the State Bank of India in connection with a money laundering case.
Sheetal Refineries Limited and others: ED officials urged the court to release the seized amount to the rightful claimant SBI. The court allowed the petition and ordered release of immovable properties worth Rs 30.71 crore of Sheetal Refineries Limited (SRL) and its directors. SRL had availed various credit facilities from a consortium of banks, including SBI and PNB, which later turned into NPAs.
Agri Gold: The ED completed the process of restitution of attached properties worth Rs 3,339 crore (value of properties at the time of attachment) to victims of Ponzi schemes launched by the Agri Gold group. The present market value of the impugned properties is expected to be over Rs 6,000 crore. The court also included more than 2,300 parcels of agricultural land, residential/commercial plots and apartments as well as an amusement park in the name of ‘Haailand’ at Chinnakakani in Guntur district.
Out of the 2,310 immovable properties that were attached, 2,254 are in Andhra Pradesh, 43 in Telangana, 11 in Karnataka and two in Odisha.