ED attaches Ooty land worth Rs 7 crore

It was bought from homebuyers' money

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached farmland worth Rs 7 crore in Ooty as part of a money-laundering probe into an alleged property fraud in Bengaluru.

The land is located in Doddabetta gram panchayat limits in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. The central agency issued a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to attach the property. The agency, in a statement on Friday, said it launched a criminal probe under the anti-money laundering law based on an FIR registered by the Bengaluru police.

Deepak Kumar Singh and Prakash Kumar Singh, directors of Sovereign Developers and Infrastructure Limited (SDIL), are accused of making “false” promises to home buyers. They allegedly collected money from buyers and made sale agreements but failed to hand over the flats in Bengaluru within the stipulated period.

The promoters allegedly demanded money over and above the agreed amount from the buyers, citing escalation charges. But they did not pay relevant taxes, fees and charges to the government departments concerned, the ED said.

“Probe revealed that the accused purchased immovable properties by diverting the fraudulently collected amount from gullible residential flat buyers, thereby committing the offence of money-laundering. In this manner, an amount of Rs 6.97 crore was transferred for purchase of agricultural land in the Nilgiris district held in the name of a partnership firm of the directors of the company,” the ED said.