ED attaches assets worth Rs 23 crore in Noida's Lotus 300 homebuyer 'fraud' case

New Delhi: The ED on Tuesday said it had attached assets worth more than Rs 23 crore in Punjab as part of a money-laundering probe against the promoters of Noida's Lotus 300 real estate project in which homebuyers were allegedly duped.

The assets attached include four residential plots and an agricultural land located in Hoshiarpur, Fatehgarh Sahib and Mohali (SAS Nagar) districts in the name of Moonlight Propbuild Private Limited and Elco Global Ventures LLP.

A provisional order was issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to attach the assets worth Rs 23.13 crore, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said in a statement.

The probe pertains to the Lotus 300 project in Noida's Sector 107 that was started by the promoters of Hacienda Projects Private Limited (HPPL) on 67,941.45 square metres of land in 2010-11.

Builder-buyer agreements were executed but 27,941.45 square metres of land valued at Rs 236 crore was sold to Prateek Infraprojects Private Limited, "violating" the conditions of the agreement, the agency said.

According to the ED, Rs 190 crore from the project was siphoned off to HPPL group company Three C Universal Developers Private Limited.

"Due to the siphoning off of the funds, the project fell short of funds and could not be completed and the company was pushed into insolvency, leaving the investors high and dry along with NOIDA Authority, whose dues were also not paid by HPPL," the agency claimed.

The money-laundering case was filed by the ED on the directions of Allahabad High Court and after taking cognisance of an FIR filed by the Delhi Police's economic offences wing against HPPL and its promoters for "diversion and siphoning off the hard-earned money of investors and homebuyers and ultimately not providing them the promised flats".

Four daylong searches were conducted by the ED in this case in September against the directors and promoters of the Three C group and cash and gold and diamond jewellery worth Rs 42 crore, "incriminating" documents and digital devices were seized.

The agency's probe found that of the funds siphoned off to Three C Universal Developers, most of the money was advanced as "unsecured loans" to various other group companies, including Moonlight Propbuild and Elco Global Ventures, for holding assets purchased out of the proceeds of crime, ie, the investors' money siphoned off from HPPL.

The ED alleged that these funds were "layered through the group companies of the Three C group and integrated in the form of immovable assets in Punjab".