Lavasa, a project in Pune linked to NCP leader Sharad Pawar has been mired in controversy. The project was bought by Ajay Singh's Darwin company at a cost of Rs 1,800 crore. The company and its affiliates have now come under the ED's radar and seized Rs 80 lakh in cash and important documents in raids conducted at nine locations in Delhi, Mumbai, and Goa.
The ED has carried out searches at a company named Dlehman Rea-IT Trade Limited. The company operates in the legal, auditing, and tax consulting fields. Rs 78 lakh in Indian currency and Rs 2 lakh in foreign currency were seized from the premises of Ajay Singh and his associates. Hariprasad Akalu Paswan and Ramesh Yadav Kumar are directors of the company and are under the control of Ajay Singh, owner of Darwin Company, which bought Lavasa.
Dlehman and others are alleged to have fraudulently transferred Rs 18 crore from the bank account of Vestige Marketing Company. On the same day, the money was transferred from Dlehman's bank account to several bank accounts of Darwin Group of Companies as well as bank accounts of close associates of Ajay Singh, the ED said.
An investigation into the complaint by Vestige Marketing revealed that Dlehman's directors were bogus. It has been revealed that Darwin, a company owned by Ajay Singh, directly benefited from this scam. This is the same company that made headlines last year by buying the Lavasa project. Darwin had bid Rs 1,814 crore to buy Lavasa Corporation in 2021. The National Company Law Tribunal's approval was required as Lavasa was insolvent even after it was confirmed by the Committee of Creditors. After receiving this approval, the Darwin Company got possession of Lavasa.