ED Completes Restoration Assets To Agri Gold Victims
ED restitutes ₹1,000 crore worth of Agri Gold properties to Ponzi scheme victims; total restitution now over ₹7,000 crore
Hyderabad: In a major development in the Agri Gold case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday completed the process of returning the attached properties to the victims of the accused company’s Ponzi schemes. The properties were valued at Rs 611 crore at the attachment and the present market value is expected to be more than Rs 1,000 crore.
In May 2025, the ED filed a restitution application under Section 8(8) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 before the Special PMLA Court of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge, Hyderabad, for the release of movable and immovable properties attached by it to the AP Crime Investigation Department (CID) 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 Act.
On June 10, the court allowed the restitution petition paving the way for restoration of attached assets to the victims. The restituted properties include 397 parcels of agricultural land, residential/commercial plots and apartments. Out of these, 380 are in Andhra Pradesh, 13 in Telangana and 4 in Karnataka.
The ED initiated investigation against Agri Gold group of companies in 2018 on the basis of several FIRs registered in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Odisha and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Agri Gold group of companies had collected deposits from around 19 lakh customers and 32 lakh account holders in the name of real estate investment with a promise of high returns or a residential plot.
The investigation revealed that Agri Gold Group ran fraudulent Collective Investment Scheme in the guise of real estate business, for which more than 130 companies were floated. These companies used to collect deposits as ‘advances for plots’ from depositors, without commensurate land being available with the company. By adhering to this business module, the accused lured lakhs of gullible persons and got deposits from them.
These funds were thereafter diverted to various industries like power, dairy, entertainment, health (Ayurvedic), farm land ventures without the knowledge of the depositors and the companies defaulted in returning the deposits either in cash or in kind as agreed upon. Thousands of commission agents were engaged by the Agri Gold group to lure people and they managed to collect around Rs 6,380 crore from more than 32 lakh investor accounts.
During the investigation, the ED attached movable and immovable properties spread across various states worth around Rs 4,141.2 crore. The ED had also arrested Avva Venkata Rama Rao, Avva Venkata Seshu Narayana Rao and Avva Hema Sundara Vara Prasad in December 2020.
Earlier, the ED had restituted properties having a current market value of more than Rs 6,000 crore in February 2025. The total value of properties restituted in this case now stands at Rs 7,000 crore in the current market value.
