ED Attaches ₹1,024-Cr Assets in Goa Mining Case
The agency calculated the total proceeds of crime at Rs 5,237.84 crore
NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has attached assets worth Rs 1,023.85 crore in an alleged illegal iron ore mining case involving the Salgaocar Groups and associates in Goa, the agency said on Sunday.
The ED issued a provisional attachment order on June 19 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The attached assets include 99 immovable properties in India worth Rs 459.10 crore, 31 immovable properties in Singapore worth Rs 471.32 crore and equity shares in Indian companies worth Rs 93.42 crore.
The assets are held in the names of the Estate of Late Anil Salgaocar, through its administrator Lakshmi Anil Salgaocar, Salgaocar Mining Industries, Shantilal Khushaldas & Brothers, S Kantilal & Co., Salitho Ores, Vertex Newton Projects and Subarnarekha Port, the ED said.
The money laundering case was registered based on a Goa Police CID FIR. The ED said the Supreme Court, in its 2014 and 2018 judgments, held that all mining carried out in Goa after November 22, 2007, till the grant of fresh mining leases, was illegal.
The agency alleged that the AVS Group operated 10 mining leases between 2007 and 2012 and generated proceeds of crime worth Rs 2,492.95 crore from the illegal extraction, sale and export of iron ore.
The ED alleged that the illegally mined ore was exported at undervalued prices to shell entities incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, which resold it to China and generated offshore trade profits of Rs 2,744.89 crore.
The agency calculated the total proceeds of crime at Rs 5,237.84 crore. It alleged that the funds were layered through BVI and Singapore-based special purpose vehicles, used to acquire assets abroad and partly routed back into India as share capital.
