The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday attached 12 land pieces measuring 48.56 acres in Gurugram, Haryana, worth Rs. 152.48 crore, owned by promoters of Unitech Group through proxy/benami entities.

The benami entities are styled as Crown Infra Projects Pvt. Ltd, Kore Communities India Pvt. Ltd. and Joshu Gurgaon SEZ Pvt. Ltd. These three companies are the part of one Trikar Group/ Kore Group which is the benami investment of Chandra family of Unitech Group, the ED said.

The ED had initiated a money laundering investigation on the basis of multiple FIRs registered by Delhi Police.

“During money laundering investigation, it is revealed that for purchasing of these properties, funds were transferred through Singapore-based companies namely Joshu Pte. Ltd., Trikar Residential Developers Pte. Ltd and Trikar Property opportunity Pte. Ltd during the period 2015-2020,” the agency said in a statement.

The source of  funds in these Singapore-based companies was from a Cayman Island based entity namely  Trikar Fund Limited (SPC) which is being controlled by the Chandra Family through another Cayman based entity Trikar Asset Management  Ltd SPC, it said.

The ED had conducted searches at 35 premises in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Mumbai. Analysis of seized records followed by the admissions of various accused persons, the benami structure (of companies) has been unearthed. 

Further investigation revealed that the promoters of Unitech Group, Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra, had illegally diverted more than Rs 2,000 crore to Cyprus and Cayman Island. “It is highly likely that this Benami investment is the part of the fund diverted to Cayman Island and Cyprus,” it added.

The ED case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act was filed after studying multiple FIRs filed by the Delhi Police economic offences wing (EOW) against the promoters of Unitech as also the company. One of the cases relates to the accused allegedly failing to complete a housing project on the scheduled time in Gurgaon.

Before the initiation of the criminal cases by the Delhi Police and subsequent probe by the ED, the Unitech was a major builder in Delhi and NCR.