Attachment of Hyderabad firm's assets is a result of the investigation into the 2018 case filed against Nowhera Shaik.
The Enforcement Directorate carried out search-and-seize operations at 25 locations in multiple states. (Supplied)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached assets worth ₹78.63 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act of 2002 (PMLA) of the Hyderabad-based SA Builders and Developers where a certain Syed Akhtar is a partner
The attached assets included properties worth ₹37.58 crore, and a bank balance of ₹41.05 crore belonging to a Bengaluru-based builder, Neelanchal Technocrats of the Sallarpuria Group.
In 2018, the ED had registered a money laundering case against several people, including Nowhera Shaik, the managing director of the Hyderabad-based Heera Group, for collecting more than ₹5,000 crore from the public as investment against the false promise of a unreasonably high 36 percent annual return on investment.
They had failed to repay even the principal amounts and thus duped thousands of innocent investors, according to a press release issued by ED on Wednesday, 14 December.
Upon investigation, the ED found that Nowhera Shaik and her Heera Group had transferred about ₹148 crore to SA Builders and Developers to purchase properties at Tolichowki in Hyderabad. But only properties worth ₹70 crore were actually registered.
The remaining ₹78 crore, described as crime proceeds in the press release, were found to be parked with SA Builders and Developers.
Further investigation by ED revealed that SA Builders and Developers had transferred ₹41 crore of this amount to Neelanchal Technocrats and four other shell entities in Kolkata and Shillong, and the funds were ultimately routed back to the Sallarpuria Sattva group as loans.
The ED had conducted a search on 7 November at the office of the Sallarpuria Sattva group in Bengaluru and unearthed the money trail. It subsequently attached immovable properties and bank balances ₹Rs 78 crore as equivalent value of the crime proceeds.
Prior to this, the ED has provisionally attached properties worth ₹300 crore in the same case.
Further investigation is in progress. The ED had arrested Nowhera Shaik and two of her associates in May 2019 in connection with charges of money laundering through a ponzi scheme and cheating gullible investors.
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