The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached 707 acres of land worth ₹1,460 crore in and around Aamby Valley City in Maharashtra’s Lonavala in the case of Sahara India and its group entities. The land was allegedly bought in the name of ‘benami’ entities using funds diverted from Sahara Group entities, the agency alleged.
The ED probe is based on three First Information Reports (FIRs) registered against Humara India Credit Co-operative Society Limited (HICCSL) and others by the police in Odisha, Bihar, and Rajasthan.
“Further, over 500 FIRs had been filed against Sahara Group entities and related persons, with more than 300 of them registered for offences that are scheduled under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act on the allegations that people were cheated into depositing funds, forced to re-deposit funds without their consent, and were denied maturity payments despite demanding maturity pay-outs several times,” an official said.
As alleged, the Sahara Group was running a ‘Ponzi’ scheme through entities such as HICCSL, Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Limited, Saharayn Universal Multipurpose Cooperative Society, Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited, Sahara India Commercial Corporation Limited, Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Limited, Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Limited, and other Sahara Group entities.
“The Group has cheated the depositors and agents by alluring them with high returns and commissions respectively and utilised the funds collected in a non-regulated manner without any information or control of the depositors. Furthermore, they avoided repayment and instead forced/ allured the depositors to redeposit their maturity amount, switching/ transferring deposits from one scheme to other scheme and entity,” it alleged.
According to the ED, in order to camouflage non-repayment, the group manipulated the books of accounts to show repayments in one scheme, treating reinvestment as fresh investment in another scheme. “…they continued to accept fresh deposits despite not being able to repay the existing maturity amount. A part of the collected money was siphoned and diverted for creating ‘benami’ assets, for their personal expenses and lavish lifestyle,” the agency said.
The agency alleged that the assets of the Sahara Group had been disposed of, and a part of the payment received in undisclosed cash, “thereby denying the depositors of their rightful claim”.
The ED has recorded the statements of various persons, including depositors, agents, and employees of the Sahara Group. It also conducted searches leading to the seizure of ₹2.98 crore in “unexplained cash”.
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