Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Kolkata, has provisionally attached 707 acres of land in and around Aamby Valley City, Lonavala, valued at nearly Rs 1,460 crore, in case against Sahara India and its group companies.
The attachment has been done under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. This land was purchased under Benami names with funds diverted from Sahara Group entities. ED took up the probe after the Odisha, Bihar and Rajasthan Police registered FIRs against M/s Humara India Credit Co-operative Society Ltd (HICCSL) and others.
Apart from these three, more than 500 FIRs were filed against the Sahara Group entities and related persons. More than 300 of these are for offences under PMLA ,2002. The allegations are that depositors were cheated into depositing funds that were then redeposited without their consent. The depositors were also denied payments on the maturity of their deposits, despite asking for them repeatedly.
“ED investigation revealed that Sahara Group was running a Ponzi scheme through various entities such as HICCSL, Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Limited (SCCSL), Saharayn Universal Multipurpose Cooperative Society (SUMCS), Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited (SMCSL), Sahara India Commercial Corporation Ltd (SICCL), Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd (SIRECL), Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd (SHICL) and other Sahara group entities,” ED has stated.
According to the Agency, the group cheated depositors and agents by alluring them with high returns and commissions respectively and utilised the funds collected in a non-regulated manner without any information or control of the depositors. Furthermore, they avoided repayment and instead forced/allured the depositors to redeposit their maturity amount, switching/transferring deposits from one scheme to other scheme and entity. In order to camouflage non repayment, the group manipulated the books of accounts to show repayment in a scheme, treating reinvestment as fresh investment in another scheme.
“In order to perpetuate the Ponzi scheme, they continued to accept fresh deposits despite not being able to repay the existing maturity amount. Part of the collected money was siphoned and diverted for creating Benami assets, for their personal expenses and lavish lifestyle. Investigation also revealed that they have also disposed off the assets of Sahara Group and received part of payment in undisclosed cash in lieu of sale of land thereby denying the depositors of their rightful claim,” the statement claims.
During investigations, statements of various persons, including depositors, agents, employees of Sahara Group and other related persons were recorded under Section 50 of PMLA. Searches were also conducted under Section 17 of PMLA, wherein unexplained cash of Rs 2.98 crore was seized. Further investigation is underway.
