E-Paper
{Multi-crore real estate scam} PMLA court stays money laundering trial against developers
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had in 2022 filed a prosecution complaint and a supplementary prosecution complaint in 2023 before PMLA court in Panchkula against Lalit Goyal and others under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act in a case related to multi-crore real estate scam.
A special court holding the trial of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases has paused the trial proceedings in a money laundering case against real estate development company, M3M India Ltd, its representative, Roop Kumar Bansal besides 50 other entities including Lalit Goyal, the erstwhile director of another real estate development company, IREO Pvt Ltd.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had in 2022 filed a prosecution complaint and a supplementary prosecution complaint in 2023 before PMLA court in Panchkula against Lalit Goyal and others under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act in a case related to multi-crore real estate scam. The ED had initiated money laundering investigation on the basis of about 30 FIRs registered under various sections of Indian Penal Code at police stations across Gurugram, Panchkula, Ludhiana and Delhi.
Special PMLA judge, Rajeev Goyal in his February 11 order said that the application filed on behalf of applicant-accused Roop Kumar Bansal seeking stay of further proceeding in the present Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) has been allowed.
Quoting an order of the same court where trial proceedings in the Panchkula industrial plots allotment case were paused till the submission of the final report (challan) in a first information report (FIR) registered by the CBI, Bansal’s counsel had argued that proceedings in this case should also be stayed till a chargesheet is filed by the investigating agency in the predicate offence.
The special PMLA court in its Panchkula industrial plots allotment case had said that there is no point in moving ahead with the proceedings of the present case and the same are required to be paused till the submission of final report in the predicate offence because proceedings of the present case depend upon the outcome of the investigation of the predicate offence.
Home buyers did not receive possession of flats, plots
As per the ED’s supplementary prosecution complaint pertaining to alleged siphoning of funds of investors and home buyers by the real estate developer, about 1,700 customers of IREO Group (out of 4,705) did not receive possession of flats or plots despite making payments to the IREO Group companies.
The ED said that out of such 1,700 customers, over 1,175 did not get possession of their flats or plots even after a lapse of more than five years.
The supplementary prosecution complaint filed before the Panchkula court said that out of the 4,705 customers who had made booking for plots, flats, villas in different IREO group projects, 640 customers had made payments of more than ₹1376 crore (till March 2017) against their bookings. These 640 customers were not handed over the possession even after delay over 4 to 5 years, said the complaint. The federal agency said that 30 first information reports (FIRs) had been registered against IREO Group, Lalit Goyal and others by Haryana, Punjab and Delhi police for cheating and diverting investor money.
The ED said that IREO Private Limited, Gurugram and its other group companies had received ₹8,300 crore ($US 1.83 billion) by way of foreign direct investment and equity shares/ fully convertible debentures from a company named IREO Fund, Mauritius. “Multiple number of companies have been identified in the name of land-owning companies used for layering and diverting funds of the IREO Group,” the agency said. The supplementary prosecution complaint said that IREO Group transferred approximately ₹1,777 crores outside India during 2011 to 2021 under the cover of buy-back of shares, redemption/ purchase of shares /FCDs on the instructions of Lalit Goyal, in contravention of the FDI policy.
