New Delhi, March 7 A special court in Gurugram on Friday granted the Enforcement Directorate (ED) six days custody of WTC Group of Companies promoter, Ashish Bhalla, who was arrested by the agency earlier in the day in the case of a massive real estate fraud and duping thousands of investors and companies.
Bhalla was arrested by the ED's Gurugram Zonal office under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 in the case of massive fraud involving WTC Faridabad Infrastructure Pvt Ltd and others of more than Rs 1,000 crore.
He has been arrested to prevent tampering with evidence and frustrate proceedings under PMLA, 2002 and further investigation is under progress, according to the financial probe agency.
The ED initiated an investigation on the basis of more than 30 FIRs registered by the Faridabad police, the Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW), and other law enforcement agencies.
These FIRs alleged commissioning of several scheduled offences into cheating, fraud and criminal conspiracy "under various sections of IPC, 1860 on failing to deliver the real estate projects by collecting hundreds of crores of funds from various investors from Faridabad and other places duping hundreds of investors of their monies through well-planned conspiracy", the agency said in a statement.
ED's investigations revealed that the WTC group was undertaking five major projects under the WTC brand and started collecting funds after promising assured returns in exchange for their investment in plot/commercial space.
The funds were diverted and siphoned off to several shell companies to acquire land parcels at various locations.
According to the ED, investigations have also revealed that hundreds of crores were also diverted abroad to suspicious entities in Singapore whose beneficial ownership is with family members of Bhalla.
Further investigation has revealed that the WTC Group had collected more than Rs 3,000 crore from various investors across several states and UTs such as Haryana, UP, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Punjab, etc and a majority of the funds was never utilised for development.
According to the ED probe, Bhalla "is a key beneficiary and mastermind of the fraudulent activities of the group and has made unlawful gains through the scheme".
The ED conducted search operations on February 27, during which Bhalla remained absconding and induced key persons against cooperating with the investigation.
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