HYDERABAD: Directorate of Enforcement, Hyderabad Zonal office has filed a Prosecution Complaint before the MSJ Court, Hyderabad against M/s Sahiti Infratec Ventures India Pvt. Ltd. (SIVIPL) and its Managing Director B. Lakshminarayan under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The court has taken cognisance of the same on December 4.
The agency initiated the investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by Telangana Police under IPC, 1860 against SIVIPL, B Lakshminarayan and others for advertising a “Pre-Launch Offer” for the construction of a world-class residential gated community and collecting huge amounts from prospective buyers.
The company, however, failed to deliver the flats to the customers or refund their money and thus cheated them of their hard-earned savings. Subsequently, various other FIRs were registered on the basis of complaints of investors/buyers of different projects undertaken by M/s SIVIPL and other group entities.
The ED investigation revealed that SIVIPL did not have the necessary RERA/HMDA permission. Further, there was no ESCROW account for the project and the funds received from investors were deposited in various bank accounts and also collected in cash.
Investigation revealed that M/s SIVIPL generated Proceeds of Crime to the tune of Rs 842.15 crore by taking advance amounts from homebuyers on the pretext of sale of inventory in projects launched by Sahiti Group. Out of this, a sum of Rs 216.91 crore was collected from homebuyers in cash, which never made it to the books of accounts and was concealed by the promoters/directors of M/s SIVIPL for their personal use.
The agency’s investigation has also revealed that the Proceeds of Crime (POC) were siphoned off by diverting the funds of SIVIPL, to related as well as unrelated entities or persons by executing bogus banking transactions without any genuine business. Further, substantial amounts of proceeds of crime in the form of cash were siphoned off from the bank accounts of SIVIPL.