E-Paper
ED attaches ₹3.72 crore assets in Chinese national case
The attached properties were in the form of bank balance and fixed deposits amounting to ₹3.12 crore and a flat worth ₹60 lakh in Mohali, Punjab.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached properties worth ₹3.72 crore in a money laundering case lodged against a Chinese national, who was “illegally staying in India”, and others connected to a loan app fraud case, confirmed senior ED officials in Lucknow on Tuesday.
The raid was conducted by the ED’s Allahabad sub-zonal office.
A senior ED official said the attached properties were in the form of bank balance and fixed deposits amounting to ₹3.12 crore and an immovable property (residential flat) worth ₹60 lakh in Mohali, Punjab, “beneficially owned” by Ravi Natvarlal Thakkar—a close associate of the Chinese national, Xue Fei.
In a press note shared with media, the official said the ED initiated the investigation on the basis of FIR and subsequent charge sheets filed by UP Special Task Force (STF) for offences committed under various sections of the IPC, 1860, the Foreigners Act, 1946 and Information Technology Act, 2000 lodged at Gautam Buddh Nagar.
He said the investigation revealed that Xue Fie was staying in India illegally and he, along with Ravi Natvarlal Thakkar and others, was running and controlling two hotels and clubs named Luckin Club Private Limited and Tianshang Renjian Private Limited in the National Capital Region (NCR). The clubs/hotels were exclusive to Chinese nationals, especially those who entered and stayed in India illegally. In these hotels, various illegal activities such as gambling and prostitution by underage girls were done.
The official informed that Xue Fie and his accomplices had opened multiple paper/bogus companies with dummy directors, and were also operating instant loan apps such as ‘Rupee Plus’, ‘Lucky Wallet’, ‘Flash Paisa’, ‘Paisa Karo’, ‘Hi Paisa’, ‘Radha Money’, etc. They were charging heavy interest rates and, in case of delayed payments of EMIs, they blackmailed and threatened the borrowers.
This way they cheated borrowers from across the India and collected huge amount running in crores of rupees, which they infused into a web of companies through circular transactions through bogus and shell companies controlled by the Chinese cartel.
In June, properties worth ₹13.51 crore were attached in the case. The fresh figures put the total worth of seized properties in the case at ₹17.23 crore.
