ED arrests promoters of Omkar Group under PMLA

Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Babulal Varma and Kamal Kishore Gupta, promoters of M/s Omkar Group, under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA).

According to an official release, both the accused were produced before the PMLA court, Mumbai today and Special Judge (PMLA) was pleased to grant ED custody of both the accused till January 30.

The ED initiated the investigation on the basis of FIR registered by Aurangabad, Police, Maharashtra under Section 34, 406, and 420 of IPC against promoters of M/s Omkar Group.

"M/s Omkar Realtors and Developers Pvt Ltd and its directors bought a firm M/s Surana Construction which had SRA rights for the redevelopment of Anand Nagar SRA Cooperative Housing Society, Wadala, Mumbai. However, M/s Omkar and its promoters did not pay back the amount due to the seller and also mortgaged future FSI of the said SRA project and took huge amounts of loans," read the release.

The investigation under PMLA revealed that the loans to the tune of Rs 410 crores were "diverted and not used for intended purposes".

"No work of the SRA building was undertaken. The requisite rules and procedures under SRA were ignored by the accused and documents relating to names of slum dwellers were forged to claim more FSI for mortgaging the same with banks for taking the loans," read the release.

Searches were conducted on January 25 on 11 premises including residential and office premises of key persons. During the search operation, incriminating documents including digital evidence have been found and seized.

The accused persons Babulal Varma and Kamal Kishore Gupta were arrested for their involvement in the offense of money laundering and produced before the PMLA court, Mumbai. Special Judge (PMLA) was pleased to grant ED custody of both the accused till January 30.

Further investigation is underway.

( With inputs from ANI )