ED attaches properties worth Rs 74.16 cr of Shine City group in money laundering case

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], October 29 : The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has provisionally attached properties worth Rs 74.16 crore in the money laundering case of Shine City Group, the agency said on Tuesday.
As per an official release, the properties attached include 24 agricultural land parcels worth Rs. 47.80 crore held in the name of Bhagwati Prasad situated at Mohanlalganj Lucknow; 6 Residential land parcels worth Rs.16.5 Crore held in the name of Shine City Colonizers Pvt. Ltd situated at Barabanki Uttar Pradesh; 1 Commercial plot and 4 Commercial spaces worth Rs. 9.27 Crore in "Springdale" project in Rewari, Haryana developed by Vardhaman Buildtech Pvt Ltd (Promoter Vivek Gupta) and 03 Agricultural land parcels worth Rs 0.57 Crore held in the name of Durga Prasad at Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh.
These properties were purchased/developed using the money collected from investors and layered & diverted by the Shine City promoters, as per the official press release from the agency.
ED initiated an investigation on the basis of approx. 554 FIRs registered by Uttar Pradesh Police against Rasheed Naseem and Shine City Group of Companies.
The ED investigation revealed that the accused persons, associates & promoters incorporated several companies and collected funds from the public in the Ponzi-pyramid scheme under the guise of investment in the real estate sector and other attractive schemes.
The ED investigation identified the fund trail and found that money collected from the customers was layered, transferred and diverted to close associates of the group. Bhagwati Prasad, Vivek Gupta and Durga Prasad are such close associates. The funds so diverted were utilised by them for buying land, commercial spaces and developing commercial real estate projects. Consequently, the poor investors never got the return on their investment or promised lands/plots.
Previously, ED had conducted search operations at 18 locations in Lucknow, Varanasi, Allahabad, Mumbai, and Delhi and recovered/seized several digital devices, incriminating documents related to the offence of money laundering and details of properties that were proceeds of crime, the ED said.
ED had arrested and conducted custodial interrogation of 8 accused people, namely Mrs. Shashi Bala, Abhishek Singh, Durga Prasad, Udhaw Singh, Ashif Naseem, Amitabh Srivastava, Mrs. Meera Srivastava and Himanshu Kumar. Till now, 05 PCs have been filed and a total of 8 individuals, 13 companies and 9 partnership firms were made accused.
The Hon'ble Special Court has taken cognisance of all PCs filed so far and the trial has commenced. The quantum of total attachment made so far in this case stands at Rs 263.55 crore (approx.).
Further investigation is under progress, the ED added.