Lucknow, Sep 8 The ED provisionally attached assets worth Rs 100.06 crore in The Aranya Project in Noida over diversion of funds collected from home buyers and investors by the project’s parent company, promoted by Anil Mithas, an official said on Monday.
The project faced action from the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Lucknow Zonal Office, as its company, Unnati Fortune Holdings Limited (UFHL), belonging to Anil Mithas HUF, misappropriated funds of homebuyers/investors, causing huge loss to the financial institutions and homebuyers and wrongful gain to its Directors and Promoters.
The ED said these diversions/siphoning of the funds of UFHL have been prejudicial to the project, causing non-completion of the projects and misappropriation of the funds of homebuyers/investors.
The Aranya Project is being developed by UFHL, belonging to Anil Mithas HUF, and its Promoters/Directors have faced ED action under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The federal probe agency has initiated an investigation against the developer on the basis of various FIRs registered by UP Police under various sections of IPC, 1860, against UFHL, Anil Mithas, Madhu Mithas and other key officials of UFHL, said the official in a statement.
The investigation till now has revealed that there has been diversion of funds to the tune of Rs 126.30 crore by Anil Mithas.
The ED said Anil Mithas is the main promoter and key person of UFHL who diverted funds through various colourful devices of money laundering, such as equity investment, preference shares, debentures/bonds, loans and advances and security deposits to related parties during the offence period between 2011 to 2019 out of the funds collected from homebuyers/investors in several bank accounts of UFHL.
According to an ED statement in April, UFHL raised Rs 522.90 crore from homebuyers between 2012 and 2019 for its residential-cum-commercial project, Aranya, located in Sector 119, Noida. However, the project failed to meet its completion timeline, leaving hundreds of buyers in the lurch.
On April 17 this year, the Lucknow Zonal Office of the ED carried out searches at eight locations across Noida, Delhi, Agra and Meerut as part of the money laundering probe against UFHL and Anil Mithas.
The raids at the offices of UFHL and residential premises of its officials were aimed at unearthing the Proceeds of Crime (POC) allegedly siphoned off by Mithas and his associates, said the ED.
--IANS
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