ED attaches land parcels, bank accounts worth Rs 78 crore of developers in Hyderabad, Bengaluru

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached land and bank assets of developers in Hyderabad and Bengaluru worth Rs 78 crore under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA).

The assets include properties worth Rs 37.58 crore of a Hyderabad-based firm SA Builders & Developers with Syed Akhtar as a partner and bank balance of Rs 41.05 crore of a Bengaluru- based developer Neelanchal Technocrats Pvt Ltd of Sallarpuria Group.

This comes after ED searched the office of the Sallarpuria Sattva group in Bangalore and unearthed the money trail on November 7.

Investigation revealed that Nowhera Sheik and her firm Heera Group transferred about Rs 148 crore to SA Builders & Developers for purchasing properties situated at Tolichowki in Hyderabad.

However, only properties worth about Rs 70 crore were registered, which were earlier attached in the hands of Heera Group. The remaining funds of Rs 78 crore were illegally found with SA Builders & Developers, ED said in a statement.

"Further investigation revealed that SA Builders & Developers had transferred Rs 41 crore out of above Rs 78 crore to Neelanchal Technocrats Pvt. Ltd. and four other Shell entities in Kolkata and Shillong. The funds were ultimately routed back to the Sallarpuria Sattva group as loans, " ED added.

Previously, ED has provisionally attached properties worth Rs 300 crore in the same case.

In 2018, ED had filed a money laundering case against Nowhera Sheik and others after they had taken more than Rs 5,000 crore in investments from the public under the false pretence of a 36 percent annual return on investment. However, they had failed to pay back even the principal amounts while defrauding thousands of unwitting investors.​