HYDERABAD: Officials from the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), probing the money laundering case against Nowhera Sheik, attached movable and immovable assets worth Rs. 78.63 crore, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). This includes properties worth Rs. 37.58 Crore of Hyderabad-based SA Builders and Developers in which Syed Akhtar is a partner besides seizing bank balance of Rs. 41.05 crore of Bangalore-based Neelanchal Technocrats Pvt Ltd of Sallarpuria Group.
Four years back, in 2018, the ED had registered a money laundering case against Nowhera Sheik and others who had collected more than Rs. 5,000 crore from the public as investment against false promise of an unreasonably high 36 per cent annual return and failed to repay even the principal amounts.
Upon investigation, ED found that Nowhera Sheik and her Heera Group of companies had transferred Rs. 148 crore to SA Builders and Developers for purchasing properties in Tolichowki whereas properties only worth Rs. 70 crore were actually registered. The remaining Rs. 78 crore was with SA Builders and Developers, which, in turn, transferred Rs. 41 crore to Neelanchal Technocrats Pvt. Ltd. and four other shell entities in Kolkata and Shillong. The funds were eventually routed back to Sallarpuria Sattva group as loan.
ED had conducted a search at the office of Sallarpuria Sattva group in Bangalore and unearthed the money trail and subsequently attached immovable properties and bank balances of Rs. 78 crore as equivalent value of the crime proceeds. Prior to this, ED had provisionally attached properties worth Rs. 300 crore.
