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CBI books former TMC Rajya Sabha MP KD Singh for cheating investors
Earlier this week, a Delhi court granted bail to KD Singh in a money laundering probe of the Enforcement Directorate, which arrested him on January 13 this year.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a case against former Trinamool Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament --- K D Singh and others for allegedly cheating investors by promising villas/plots/apartments through his companies - Alchemist Infra Realty Limited and Alchemist Township Limited, people familiar with the development said.
The case was earlier registered by the Uttar Pradesh Police in 2019, which has been handed over to the central agency for further investigation.
Earlier this week, a Delhi court granted bail to KD Singh in a money laundering probe of the Enforcement Directorate, which arrested him on January 13 this year.
His company is also under investigation for Ponzi scheme irregularities worth over ₹1,900 crore. The ED had, in September 2019, attached his properties worth over ₹230 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
In the latest case, registered on Friday, CBI has claimed that K D Singh, through his two companies cheated 291 residents of Kanpur by making false promises of allotment of plots/villas/apartments. However, the investors neither got any plot/villa nor their received back their money, according to the FIR.
The ED probe against Singh and a firm linked to him (Ms Alchemist Infra Realty Limited) dates back to September, 2016 when it filed a criminal case under the PMLA taking cognisance of a charge sheet filed against the company, its directors and others by market regulator SEBI.
“Investigation revealed that the proceeds of crime generated by Alchemist Infra Realty Ltd were laundered through the web of companies. Investigations also revealed that the funds mobilised by the firm from various investors were never utilised for the purpose for which they were collected and the same were transferred to bank accounts of other group companies which were mainly paper companies from where they were systematically siphoned off by the accused and used to purchase properties at various locations in the country. All such assets in Punjab, Haryana, Shimla and bank accounts in HDFC Bank worth ₹239.39 crore identified during the course of investigations have been provisionally attached,” the ED said in a statement in January 2019.
It has been alleged by the probe agencies that the company launched an illegal collective investment scheme, also called a ponzi or chit fund scheme, and mobilised funds of about ₹1,916 crore from the public in the years preceding 2015. The firm allegedly launched the scheme “without the approval” of the SEBI and led to cheating of gullible investors.
K D Singh or his legal representative could not be located for comments.
