ED searches realty major DLF in money laundering case against Supertech
New Delhi, Nov 25: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has searched the premises of realty major DLF in Gurugram as part of a money laundering investigation against real estate firm Supertech and its promoters, official sources said on Saturday.
The central agency has recovered some documents during the action that was carried out over the last two days, they said.
The action is linked to the ED investigation against Supertech, the sources said.
DLF, later in a stock market filing, said "a team of officials from the Enforcement Directorate visited our premises seeking information with respect to investigation being conducted in the matter of Supertech."
The officials sought details of transactions relevant to the said investigation and the company extended full cooperation by providing them all relevant documents in this regard, it said.
The ED had arrested Supertech promoter R K or Ram Kishor Arora in this case in June. He is in judicial custody at present.
It had then alleged that Arora was the main controlling person of the group who decided to "divert" crores of funds of investors and homebuyers to various shell companies.
The money laundering case, filed under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), stems from as many as 26 FIRs registered by the police departments of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh against Supertech Limited and its group companies on allegations of cheating 670 homebuyers for an amount of Rs 164 crore.
The ED had said "huge amounts of money running into hundreds of crores were siphoned off through Supertech Group and they failed to adhere to their agreed obligations to provide the possession of flats to customers on time".
It claimed that Supertech Group "siphoned off Rs 440 crore received from customers and homebuyers for purchasing land in Gurugram in 2013-14 at highly inflated prices while their already promised projects in Noida were not completed".
A new project was launched on this newly acquired land and further advance was collected from hundreds of homebuyers and loans were taken from banks/NBFCs which also became NPA and were declared "fraud" by banks, it alleged.
Supertech Ltd, which was formed in 1988, has so far delivered around 80,000 apartments, mainly in the Delhi-NCR market. The company is currently developing around 25 projects across National Capital Region (NCR). It is yet to give possession to more than 20,000 customers.
The company has been in crisis since last year.
In August 2022, Supertech suffered a big setback when its nearly 100-metre-tall twin towers -- Apex and Ceyane -- located on Noida Expressway were demolished as per a Supreme Court order that found their construction within Emerald Court premises in violation of norms.
More than 3,700 kg of explosives were used to demolish the two towers.
Arora had then said that the company incurred a loss of about Rs 500 crore, including construction and interest costs, because of the demolition of its twin towers in Noida.
The company suffered another blow last year when the Delhi bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in March had ordered to initiate the insolvency proceedings against Supertech Ltd over a petition filed by the Union Bank of India for non-payment of dues of around Rs 432 crore.
However, this was challenged by Arora before the NCLAT.
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T'gana BC panel seeks reports over infant's death, family alleges caste abuse
Hyderabad (PTI): The Telangana Commission for Backward Classes on Monday sought reports from state government officials on the death of an infant following alleged assault and caste abuse against her family members in Nagarkurnool district while visiting a temple fair.
In separate letters, Commission Chairman G Niranjan urged Endowments Department Commissioner S Harish and Nagarkurnool district Collector Badavath Santhosh to furnish the reports within three days.
Niranjan drew the officials' attention to media reports on the death of the two-month-old baby at Kummera village in the district and alleged caste discrimination and denial of entry to the temple fair to the baby's family belonging to a BC community.
BJP OBC Morcha's state unit president G Anand Goud alleged inadequate response by the police in the incident and demanded a transparent investigation into the incident.
Alleging that the deceased baby's father was attacked in the incident, he also demanded action against the attackers.
Goud told reporters that BJP's state unit president N Ramachander Rao would visit the village on February 24 and meet the baby's family members.
Meanwhile, a BRS delegation met DGP B Shivadhar Reddy and demanded a comprehensive inquiry into the incident.
The BRS leaders sought action against a person who allegedly attacked the infant's parents.
BC associations have held protests over the past few days regarding the alleged caste discrimination against the deceased infant's family members.
Police said on Sunday that four persons were arrested in connection with the cases registered after the family alleged that the baby died following an "assault" by a group of villagers. The family also alleged that they were abused in the name of caste in the incident on February 18.
However, a villager, part of the group, lodged a counter-complaint with the police the same day, alleging that he was attacked with stones during a scuffle with the family, sustaining a head injury, following which a case was registered.
The infant died on February 21 and her mother, who belongs to an SC community, also lodged a complaint alleging her daughter died due to the physical assault on the family by some villagers, police said.
