Kolkata, Apr 24 (UNI) The enforcement Directorate (ED) probing Sahara India's alleged Ponzi scam, has attached landed property of Sahara Prime City Ltd measuring 1023 acres from 16 locations across the country worth Rs. 538 crore, the federal agency said.
"These lands were purchased in Benami names with the funds diverted from Sahara entities as the attached lands are spread across 16 cities in India," the ED said.
The attached lands are located in Gujarat, Odisha, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, J&K, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, UP West Bengal on the basis of 3 FIRs registered u/s 420 and 120B of IPC, 1860 against M/s Humara India Credit Co-operative Society Ltd. (HICCSL) and others by Odisha, Bihar and Rajasthan Police.
Besides, over 500 FIRs had been registered against the Sahara Group entities and related persons. More than 300 FIRs registered for offences that are scheduled under the PMLA, 2002 on the allegations that depositors were cheated into depositing funds, forced to redeposit funds without their consent and were denied their maturity payments despite demanding maturity payouts several time," the ED said in a statement.
" In order to camouflage non-repayment, the group manipulated the books of accounts to show repayment in a scheme, treating reinvestment as fresh investment in another scheme," the ED said.
In order to perpetuate the ponzi scheme, they continued to accept fresh deposits despite not being able to repay the existing maturity amount. " the ED said.
The ED probe revealed that part of the collected money was siphoned and diverted for creating benami assets, for their personal expenses and lavish lifestyle.
Investigation also revealed that they have also disposed of the assets of Sahara group and received part of payment in undisclosed cash in lieu of sale of land thereby denying the depositors of their rightful claim.
During investigations, statements of various persons, including depositors, agents, employees of Sahara Group and other related persons have been recorded under Section 50 of PMLA.
Also, searches were conducted under section 17 of PMLA wherein cash of Rs. 2.98 crore was seized.
Earlier, another attachment order in the instant case was issued attaching 707 acres of land having approximate market value of Rs.1460 crore in Amby Valley.
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