ED files chargesheet against 19 accused persons including SRS Group Chairman in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate has filed a Prosecution Complaint (PC) against 19 accused persons, including the Chairman of the SRS group in a money laundering case linked to the alleged cheating of homebuyers and investors.

According to ED, nineteen accused persons and entities, including SRS Group Chairman Anil Jindal and company directors Jitender Kumar Garg, Praveen Kumar Kapoor and Vinod Jindal and others have been named in the prosecution complaint filed under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 in a case related to fraud committed against various homebuyers and investors.

The complaint has been filed before a special PMLA court in Gurugram and the court took cognizance on October 31, 2022.

The ED initiated a money laundering investigation on the basis of 81 FIRs under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860 registered at various Police Stations across Faridabad and Delhi against the accused.

"The accused duped the innocent buyers by promising them to deliver flats/plots/commercial spaces etc.; however, they failed to deliver the projects. Further, the real estate projects were mortgaged to avail loans from Banks and other financial institutions," the agency said in a statement.

However, the ED said that the loans were not used for the intended purposes and were defaulted, eventually turning into non-performing assets (NPA).

Accused persons of SRS Group also lured investors to invest in SRS Group Ponzi schemes with unsustainable returns in the form of very high interest or jewellery on their investments.

"The interest on such investments were paid only for a few months and later accused gave post-dated cheques to investors, which were not honoured. Funds so accumulated from the buyers or investors were layered into a number of shell companies created by SRS Group and were subsequently siphoned off to acquire assets in personal names and in the name of entities controlled by them. The total proceeds of crime identified in the case till now stand at Rs 2215.98 crore," it said.

Earlier, a Provisional Attachment Order attaching various properties of the accused was issued and the same was confirmed by Ld. Adjudicating Authority amounting to Rs 2045.6 crore.

Further investigation, in this case, is under progress.

( With inputs from ANI )