New Delhi, The Enforcement Directorate Monday said it has identified assets worth thousands of crores of rupees following searches in Delhi-NCR against realty firm WTC Group and Bhutani Group.
The raids were conducted on February 27 at a dozen locations in Delhi, Noida and Faridabad and Gurugram against WTC Group and its promoter Ashish Bhalla, and Bhutani Group and its promoter Ashish Bhutani under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act , the federal agency said in a statement.
The ED said the case stems from dozens of FIRs filed by the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police and the Faridabad Police against WTC Group and its promoters Ashish Bhalla, Suparna Bhalla, Abhijeet Bhalla, and Bhutani Infra and others for alleged cheating, criminal breach of trust and committing fraud on hundreds of homebuyers.
These police cases were registered on the basis of complaints from “hundreds” of homebuyers and investors.
The Bhutani Infra said in a statement last week that it severed all ties with the WTC Group recently and “is now fully cooperating with the ED in its investigation.” No comment was immediately available from the WTC Group.
The ED said the police FIRs allege that WTC Faridabad Infrastructure Private Limited and its promoters “lured” the general public to invest in their project at Sector 111-114 of the city for residential plots.
The promoters/directors hatched a “criminal conspiracy” and “siphoned off” the plot buyers’ hardearned money by not completing the project within the stipulated time and “non-delivery” of the plots for more than 10 years, it said.
It was also alleged in FIRs that the Bhutani Infra group has acquired the WTC Group and has re-launched the project at Sector 111-114 Faridabad keeping the plot buyers in “disarray” and committing fraud on investors and luring them to “surrender” their units, according to the ED.
During the searches, the agency said, documents related to collection of more than ₹3,500 crore from various investors were found against 15 projects in Delhi-NCR. It was not stated by the ED where these documents were recovered from.
Out of the 15 major projects being undertaken by the group , very few deliveries have been given “indicating a well-orchestrated Ponzi scheme” and creation of assets in the name of other entities and siphoning off the funds abroad, it said.
“It was also unearthed during search action that more than ₹200 crore has been siphoned to Singapore and the, USA indicating investments overseas for acquiring of overseas assets.
“Additionally, incriminating documents related to the WTC Group and Bhutani Group were seized wherein assets worth thousands of crores in market value have been transferred to the Bhutani Group at a nominal value, thus transferring the proceeds of crime at a nominal price,” the agency alleged.
Documents related to “cash” transactions were also found, it said.
The agency said it seized several “incriminating” documents related to diversion, layering of funds apart from property documents like sale and registration deeds and laptops, hard drives etc. were also seized.
“Additionally, assets to the tune of thousands of crores have been identified in the name of WTC group,” it said.
Fixed deposits of WTC Group of companies have also been frozen and seized along with jewellery and bullion worth ₹1.5 crore, the ED said.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.