- विज्ञापन -
Chandigarh: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached nine immovable properties, including about 27.36 acres of agricultural land, worth Rs 68.59 crore in a major builder-investor fraud case involving Vatika Limited.
The action was taken under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, in which over 600 investors were allegedly defrauded. The ED investigation follows multiple FIRs registered in 2021 by the Economic Offences Wing, Delhi, against Vatika Limited, its promoters Anil Bhalla and Gautam Bhalla and others.
Investors lured by promising high returns
The allegations include criminal conspiracy, cheating and dishonestly luring investors and homebuyers. The ED said Vatika Limited lured investors by promising high returns for future projects, including assured payments during construction and lease-rent returns after completion.
ED raided 15 places including Delhi and Gurugram in October in connection with money laundering against Vatika Limited and its affiliates. During this, ED seized documents related to investment, loan papers taken from financial institutions, and digital devices like pen drives, hard disks, laptops, and mobile phones.
Around 600 investors are involved in this case. Who were promised assured returns on investing in the commercial project of Vatika Limited.
Investigation is still going on
ED started the investigation on the basis of FIR registered by the Economic Offenses Wing of Delhi and Haryana Police in 2021. The investigation revealed that Vatika Limited attracted investors to invest in future projects, but later stopped paying assured returns and did not hand over the concerned units to the investors.
Apart from this, companies associated with Vatika Group took loans of more than Rs 5000 crore, out of which about Rs 1200 crore was waived by Indiabulls Company in an agreement with Vatika Group and its promoters.
According to ED sources, the directors of Vatika Limited and its associate institutions are accused of defrauding crores of rupees of more than 2000 investors. The company made these investors invest in its projects, but they were not given returns on time. Instead, the company diverted the deposited amount to some other project or company.
The investigation has also revealed that the company did not renew the license from DTCP from time to time and has been negligent in completing the projects on time.
