ED attaches Rs 230 cr assets of Bhopal's Peoples Group

ED attaches Rs 230 cr assets of Bhopal's Peoples Group

Bhopal: Schools, colleges, paper mill and other buildings worth more than Rs 230 crore of the Bhopal-based Peoples Group have been attached as part of a money laundering investigation, the Enforcement Directorate said Thursday.

The ED case stems from three charge sheets filed by the Registrar of Companies against Suresh Narayan Vijaywargia, late Ramvilas Vijaywargia, Peoples International and Services Pvt Ltd, PGH International Pvt Ltd and Peoples General Hospital Pvt Ltd under sections of the Companies Act, 2013.

The attached properties are in the form of land, buildings and machinery, colleges, schools, training centre, paper mill, newsprint machinery etc., the agency said in a statement.

The total value of the attached properties is Rs 230.4 crore, it said.

The ED alleged its probe found that Vijaywargia enriched himself and the entities under his control using the money received as FDI by dubious methods, damaging the interest of the shareholders of the three companies (Peoples International and Services Pvt Ltd, PGH International Pvt Ltd and Peoples General Hospital Pvt Ltd) which received the FDI.  'Foreign Direct Investment of Rs 494 crore was received in the three companies of the Peoples Group during 2000-2011 and the same were siphoned off in the form of interest free (or very low interest) 'loans', 'security deposit', advances and in other such names during 2000 to 2022, to S N Vijaywargia and to related entities under his control, resulting in generation of proceeds of crime amounting to Rs 594.65 crore,' it said.

These proceeds were utilised by S N Vijaywargia, Sarvajanik Parmarthik Jankalyan Nyas (a public trust on which S N Vijaywargia exercised dominant control as trustee) and PG Infrastructure and Services Pvt Ltd (a company whose 99 per cent shares are held by S N Vijaywargia) for purchase of properties and creation of assets, the ED said.