ED attaches assets worth ₹35.22 crore in ₹137-crore embezzlement case

The ED has provisionally attached assets worth ₹35.22 crore in a ₹137 crore embezzlement case linked to a bogus business scheme in Mumbai.

MUMBAI: The Mumbai unit of Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached provisionally assets worth ₹35.22 crore as part of its money-laundering probe into a ₹137 crore embezzlement case against a private firm and others.

ED attaches assets worth ₹35.22 crore in ₹137-crore embezzlement case

The accused entities and persons were accused of embezzlement of funds worth ₹137 crore belonging to a private investor on the pretext of financing a bogus business scheme, named ‘Need To Feed’ programme, purportedly linked to the government’s mid-day meal scheme, ED officials said on Wednesday. The attached assets included movable assets in the form of bank balances, Demat holdings, mutual funds and immovable properties. ED’s case is based on a First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Worli police station in February 2022, against several persons and entities including M/s Suumaya Industries Ltd and its promoters.

The FIR was based on a complaint filed by the firm from which the funds had been procured for the scheme. The accused persons and entities had allegedly hatched a conspiracy among each other and embezzled funds worth Rs. 137 crore by inducing the firm to finance a fictitious business scheme, named ‘Need to Feed’, purportedly linked to the government’s mid-day meal scheme, according to the FIR. The FIR was registered under sections relating to cheating, common intention and other offences under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

The case was later taken over by the city police’s Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai police.

ED’s investigation revealed that the Suumaya group and its associates allegedly concocted a bogus Haryana government contract, as part of a so-called ‘Need to Feed’ programme, to obtain funds and finances for trade, thereby converting and projecting non-existent business operations as genuine turnover, the officials said. The investigation revealed that funds received by Suumaya group’s entities were allegedly diverted by an accused, Ushik Gala, to Delhi – Haryana- based dummy agro trading entities through an agent to falsely depict genuine procurement for the bogus programmer.

No actual agro purchases allegedly had occurred and instead, the diverted funds were routed back to Ushik Gala through a combination of cash and RTGS entries from other shell entities, the officials said. Suumaya allegedly created fake invoices and lorry receipts to simulate large volumes of trade, resulting in circular transactions amounting to ₹5,000 crore, of which only around 10 per cent were genuine, the official said.

During the course of investigation, ED had arrested Ushik Gala, the promoter of Suumaya Group of companies, in the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in November 2025.

“These transactions were done in a circular pattern that led to increase in turnover of involved entities and they artificially boosted Suumaya’s turnover, from Rs. 210 crore to Rs. 6,700 crore in two years, and caused its share price to soar astronomically, thereby giving a misleading picture to investors in its listed group entities,” an ED official said.