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ED attaches ₹99.26-crore assets in Amrapali Group money laundering case
The assets attached include the office and factory land and building of M/s Mauria Udyog Ltd, a key entity of the Sureka Group, promoted by Navneet Sureka and Akhil Sureka. The properties, located in Uttar Pradesh, have an aggregate fair market value of ₹99.26 crore as assessed on December 30, 2016, officials said.
The Lucknow zonal office of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has provisionally attached immovable properties worth ₹99.26 crore in connection with the multi-crore Amrapali Group money-laundering case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, officials stated in an official communiqué on Saturday.
The assets attached include the office and factory land and building of M/s Mauria Udyog Ltd, a key entity of the Sureka Group, promoted by Navneet Sureka and Akhil Sureka. The properties, located in Uttar Pradesh, have an aggregate fair market value of ₹99.26 crore as assessed on December 30, 2016, officials said.
The ED said the probe was initiated based on multiple FIRs registered at police stations in Gautam Buddh Nagar (UP) and by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police, besides directions issued by the Supreme Court on July 23, 2019, in the Bikram Chatterji & Ors. vs Union of India & Ors. case filed by aggrieved homebuyers.
According to the agency, the Amrapali Group collected massive sums from homebuyers, but failed to deliver flats within promised timelines, and fraudulently diverted funds through a criminal conspiracy involving bogus transactions, forgery and cheating.
The ED investigations revealed that Anil Kumar Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar, directors of the Amrapali Group, allegedly colluded with Navneet Sureka and Akhil Sureka, directors of Mauria Udyog Ltd and Jotindra Steel & Tubes Ltd, to siphon off homebuyers’ money. The diversion was shown as payments for procurement of TMT bars and construction material through non-genuine and fraudulent transactions, officials said.
The probe found that the funds were routed through a complex web of shell companies and fake suppliers, withdrawn largely in cash and irreversibly dissipated, thereby generating and laundering proceeds of crime, they added.
The ED established that ₹110.39 crore of homebuyers’ funds was diverted to Mauria Udyog Ltd. As the original proceeds were no longer traceable, the agency attached the immovable properties on the principle of “value thereof” under the PMLA to secure the tainted money, officials said.
So far, the agency has arrested Anil Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar of the Amrapali Group, Anil Mittal, its statutory auditor, and Chander Prakash Wadhwa, the group’s CFO. The ED has filed six prosecution complaints (charge sheets), naming 33 individuals and entities as accused. With the latest action, the ED has issued six provisional attachment orders, attaching properties worth a cumulative ₹303.08 crore in the Amrapali case. Further investigation is underway, officials said.
