ED attaches Rs 18.14 crore assets of Unitech Group's ex-promoters

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth Rs 18.14 crore belonging to two benami entities of erstwhile Unitech Group promoters Ajay Chandra and Sanjay Chandra.

The attached properties include one multiplex in Gurugram, six commercial properties in Gurugram and Lucknow and 24 bank accounts and Fixed Deposit Receipt, the agency said on Friday.

These assets are in the name of Enova Facility Management Services Pvt Ltd and FNM property Services Pvt Ltd which are benami entities of Chandras, said the ED.

The ED initiated a money laundering investigation on the basis of various FIRs filed by homebuyers against Unitech Group and its promoters by Delhi Police and the Central Bureau of Investigation.

"Total Proceeds of Crime detected by the ED, in this case, is Rs 7,638.43 crore," ED said.
The investigation by the ED revealed that these two benami entities were managed by Chandras through their close confidants and the assets attached were acquired and created from the proceeds of crime diverted from Unitech Group.

With this attachment, the total attachment, in this case, has reached Rs 690.66 crore.
Three persons have been arrested in this case.

The matter pertains to a criminal case which started initially by one complaint lodged in 2015 and later joined by 173 other home buyers of Unitech projects' -- 'Wild Flower Country' and 'Anthea Project' -- situated in Gurugram.

On January 20 last year, in a respite to over 11,000 hassled home buyers of Unitech, the Supreme Court had allowed the Centre to take total management control of the realty firm and appoint a new board of nominee directors.

The apex court had approved the name of retired Haryana cadre IAS officer Yudvir Singh Malik as chairman and managing director (CMD) of the new board and directed that the existing board of directors of the company would stand superseded.

In 2018, the top court had directed a forensic audit of Unitech Ltd and its sister concerns and subsidiaries by Samir Paranjpe, Partner, Forensic and Investigation Services in Grant Thornton India.

The forensic auditors had submitted their report which said that Unitech Ltd received around Rs 14,270 crore from 29,800 home buyers from 2006-2014 and around Rs 1,805 crore from six financial institutions for the construction of 74 projects.

(ANI)