ED Identifies Assets Worth Over Rs 3,500 Crore In Searches Against Two Realty Firms

The Enforcement Directorate announced on Monday that it has identified assets to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees after conducting searches against realty firms WTC Group and Bhutani Group.

According to the federal agency's statement, the raids were conducted under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act on Feb. 27.

Raids were carried out at several locations in Delhi, Noida (Uttar Pradesh) and Faridabad and Gurugram (both in Haryana) against WTC Group and its promoter Ashish Bhalla, and Bhutani Group and its promoter Ashish Bhutani.

The Enforcement Directorate said that dozens of FIRs have been filed by the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police and the Faridabad Police against WTC Group and its promoters Ashish Bhalla, Suparna Bhalla, Abhijeet Bhalla, as well as Bhutani Infra and others for alleged cheating, criminal breach of trust and committing fraud on hundreds of homebuyers.

These police cases were registered on the basis of complaints from "hundreds" of homebuyers and investors.

Last week, Bhutani Infrastructure Developers Pvt. had said in a statement that it has severed all ties with the WTC Group recently and "is now fully cooperating with the ED in its investigation."

No comment was immediately available from the WTC Group.

The ED said that the police FIRs allege that WTC Faridabad Infrastructure Pvt. and its promoters "lured" the general public to invest in their project at Sector 111-114 of the city for residential plots.

It said that the promoters and directors hatched a "criminal conspiracy" and "siphoned off" the plot buyers' hard-earned money by not completing the project within the stipulated time and "non-delivery" of the plots for more than 10 years.

In the FIRs, it has also been alleged that the Bhutani Infra group has acquired the WTC Group and has re-launched the project at Sector 111-114 Faridabad keeping the plot buyers in "disarray", thereby committing fraud on investors and luring them to "surrender" their units, according to the ED.

During the searches, the agency said, documents related to collection of more than Rs 3,500 crore from various investors were found against 15 projects in Delhi-NCR.

However, the ED didn't state where it recovered these documents from.

Of the 15 major projects undertaken by the WTC Group, very few deliveries were given, "indicating a well-orchestrated Ponzi scheme" and creation of assets in the name of other entities and siphoning off the funds abroad, it said.

"It was also unearthed during search action that more than Rs 200 crore has been siphoned to Singapore and the, USA indicating investments overseas for acquiring of overseas assets.

"Additionally, incriminating documents related to the WTC Group and Bhutani Group were seized wherein assets worth thousands of crores in market value have been transferred to the Bhutani Group at a nominal value, thus transferring the proceeds of crime (POC) at a nominal price," the agency alleged.

Documents related to "cash" transactions were also found, it said.

The agency said it seized several "incriminating" documents related to diversion, layering of funds apart from property documents like sale and registration deeds and laptops, hard drives, etc, were also seized.

"Additionally, assets to the tune of thousands of crores have been identified in the name of WTC group," it said.

Fixed deposits of WTC Group of companies have also been frozen and seized along with jewellery and bullion worth Rs 1.5 crore, the ED said.

—With PTI inputs