ED complaint against firm for duping home-buyers of ₹842.15 crore with pre-launch offer

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Hyderabad, has filed a Prosecution Complaint (PC) before the Metropolitan Sessions Judge (MSJ) Court, Hyderabad, against M/s Sahiti Infratec Ventures India Pvt. Ltd. (SIVIPL) and its managing director B. Lakshminarayan under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The court took cognisance of the PC on December 12 and also dismissed B. Lakshminarayan’s bail petition on Thursday.

An official release said that the ED initiated investigation on the basis of a First Information Report (FIR) registered by Telangana police against the company and its management for advertising a ‘pre-launch offer’ for the construction of a residential gated community and collecting huge amounts from prospective buyers. The company, however, failed to deliver the flats to the customers or to refund their money and thus cheated them of their hard-earned savings.

The FIR was registered following complaints of investors and buyers of different projects undertaken by M/s SIVIPL and other group entities.

The ED investigation revealed that SIVIPL did not have the necessary RERA/HMDA permission. Further, there was no ESCROW account for the project and the funds received from investors were deposited in various bank accounts, besides being collected in cash.

“M/s SIVIPL generated proceeds of crime to the tune of ₹842.15 crore by taking advance from home-buyers on false pretext of sale of inventory in projects launched by Sahiti Group. Out of this, a sum of ₹216.91 crore was collected from home-buyers in cash, which never made it to the books of accounts and was concealed by the promoters/directors of M/s SIVIPL for their personal use,” the release said.

The investigation further revealed that the proceeds of crime were siphoned off by diverting the funds of M/s SIVIPL to related as well as unrelated entities/persons by executing bogus banking transactions without any genuine business. While substantial amount of proceeds of crime in the form of cash was siphoned off from the bank accounts of M/s SIVIPL after withdrawal, funds were also diverted to overseas bank accounts by B. Lakshminarayana and his family members.

The ED said that funds of home-buyers were embezzled by B. Lakshminaryan in connivance with Sandu Purnachandra Rao, former director of SIVIPL and head of sales and marketing team; and that immovable properties were acquired by him out of the proceeds of crime in the names of his benamis.

Earlier, the ED conducted searches and movable and immovable properties worth ₹161.50 crore were provisionally attached during the course of PMLA investigation. B. Lakshminarayan was arrested under the provisions of PMLA, 2002 on September 29, 2024.

Further investigation is underway.

Published - December 12, 2024 08:51 pm IST