The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested S. Vasudevan, the chairman and managing director of real estate developer Ozone Urbana Infra Developers, in a money laundering probe linked to alleged defrauding of homebuyers, the agency said on Friday.
Vasudevan, the company's main promoter, was arrested on September 30 under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). A special PMLA court in Bengaluru on Thursday granted the agency 14 days' custody for further questioning, the ED said in a statement.
The agency alleged that Ozone Urbana and Vasudevan defrauded homebuyers of Rs 927.22 crore, failing to deliver apartments or refund deposits.
The federal probing agency said the company lured buyers by promising to pay pre-construction EMIs, or equated monthly instalments, until possession of flats was handed over, but did not honour those commitments or complete the project. It alleged the company misappropriated the upfront booking amounts and loan funds.
The agency started probe into the matter based on multiple cases filed under sections 419, 420 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code, covering cheating by impersonation, cheating and criminal conspiracy, at various police stations in Bengaluru.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also registered a case against the company and its promoter on the direction of the Supreme Court.
The ED searched several premises linked to the case on Aug. 1, 2025, seizing documents, and on Oct. 4, 2025, provisionally attached immovable properties worth Rs 423.378 crore. The agency said it has also opened a parallel money laundering investigation based on three separate CBI cases against Ozone Infra Developers, Ozone Realtors and Ozone Projects.
Vasudevan is a common director in all three firms. The arrest is intended to help investigators trace how the alleged proceeds of crime were generated, diverted, layered and used, including the role of group entities and other persons through whom the funds were routed, the ED said.
