Lucknow/New Delhi, Apr 24 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday conducted searches against an Uttar Pradesh-based real estate group as part of a money laundering investigation linked to an alleged bank loan fraud and cheating of homebuyers, official sources said.
Officials of the federal agency covered a total of 10 premises linked to the Prayagraj-based Tulsiani Constructions and Developers Pvt. Ltd. and some others in Lucknow, Meerut, Noida and Prayagraj apart from Gurugram in Haryana.
An office of a linked company in the case, G S Expressway, in the Gomti Nagar area of Lucknow was also covered.
Tulsiani Group CMD Anil Tulsiani and his wife Kavita Tulsiani were the directors of G S Expressway earlier and at present, some family members of BJP MLA from Harraiya (Basti) Ajay Singh hold the position, the sources said.
The new directors of this company have been identified as Sangram Singh and Siddharth Singh. They are allegedly linked to the BJP legislator, they said.
The ED searched premises from where it could gather evidence of the alleged bank loan fraud and cheating of homebuyers by the Tulsiani Group and its promoters. The said Lucknow-based company was searched as it was found that the promoters of the Tulsiani Group had a stake in it in the past, they said.
There is no relationship of the accused being probed in this case with the MLA, the sources said.
Ajay Singh told reporters that he got to know about the ED raids at his Lucknow office in the morning.
“I am ready for any investigation… I was raided by the Income-Tax department too about three years back… I am a dedicated soldier of the BJP,” he said.
“People say that the BJP only targets opposition parties but with this action against me, this claim has been proven wrong,” the politician added.
An email sent by PTI to the company did not elicit any response.
The money laundering case against the Tulsiani Group and its promoters stems from an Uttar Pradesh Police FIR that was registered on a complaint filed by the Punjab National Bank (PNB), officials said.
In its complaint, PNB alleged a fraud of Rs 4.63 crore by the company.
Tulsiani, who is also being investigated for “duping” homebuyers, was arrested by Uttar Pradesh Police and the Allahabad High Court had directed the ED to investigate the case, the sources said.
The federal anti-money laundering agency suspects that the “proceeds of crime” in this case are worth about Rs 10 crore.
The realty group has constructed commercial and residential projects in Prayagraj and Lucknow and according to its website, it is undertaking similar projects in Meerut and Gurugram. PTI NES DIV DIV
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.