ED attaches assets worth Rs 207 crore in case related to defrauding public

In a financial fraud-related case, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Monday attached over 1000 immovable properties worth Rs 207 crore belonging to a private company under the Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) Act.

As per an official release, ED provisionally attached a total of 1081 immovable properties measuring around 3850 acres registered in the names of Disc Assets Lead India Limited, Eagles Eye Real Estates, Meadow Realtors, and its key managerial persons under PMLA provisions in a case related to defrauding the public in the guise of investment.

"ED initiated the investigation on the basis of FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing of the Tamil Nadu Police under sections 120B and 420 of IPC," it stated.

During the investigation, the agency found the directors of the company had floated many other entities like Dal Marketing Solutions Private Limited and Aiyan Marketing Solutions Private Limited to collect money from the public on behalf of Disc Assets Lead India Limited to circumvent the legal impediments of the SEBI Act.

"The total money collected by this company amounts to around Rs 1273 Crore. Investigation under PMLA further revealed that the invested amount collected from the depositors was utilized in the purchase of immovable properties in Tamil Nadu in the name of the company, its directors, and other unrelated entities. The major portion of the collected amount was siphoned off by the directors of the accused company through entities which were floated by them with their close relatives as directors/partners," it stated.

ED had earlier arrested directors and key managerial persons namely N Umashankar alias NM Umasangarr, N Arun Kumar alias N. Arun, V Janarthanan and A Saravana Kumar for their involvement in the offense of money laundering.

"The accused persons had cheated its depositors by neither allotting them land nor returning their investment," it added.

( With inputs from ANI )