Real estate developer Unitech’s promoters was alleged of channeling over Rs. 1,600 crore, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has come to the knowledge of siphoning.
It will verify if the funds were channeled to forign accounts, the bank accounts will be zeroed of the directors of the bank of the company to confirm if the money was transferred abroad including Dubai. The money laundering angle will also be checked by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Grant Thornton, Supreme Court appointed auditor emphasised the irregularities in the preliminary reports, the forex enforcement agency has zeroed in on this case.
The auditor said that around Rs.1,500 crores of the home buyers was used for purposes other than construction of housing projects in the May preliminary report. Thornton’s report said over ?1,500 crore was spent by the group to acquire land and for other purposes. It also said advance of ?600 crore given to a few individuals in 2012 had not come back to the company. The top placed ED sources said the money under surveillance is around Rs.1,600 crores and it has been channeled off.
The managing director brothers of Unitech, Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra were arrested on April 2017 as the flats were not delivered to flat owners on time in Gurugram’s Sector 70, who had made the full payment for the houses
The brothers were accused of not obtaining proper permissions before starting the project. Adding to the above accusation they also did not return the money to the buyers who sought refund of their money due to the delay of the handing over the possession of the houses.
ED to examine alleged Rs 1,600 crore siphoning by Unitech promoters
The alleged partners in crime have hit a century in the complaints registered against them for alleged fraud, cheating to over Rs. 35 crores. The house buyers, who were added to be more than two dozen of Unitech’s housing projects in Noida and Gurugram had approached the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NDRC) due to the failure in the delivery of the houses on time. The deadline promised was 2012 but failed to deliver.
The Supreme Court ordered forensic audit of the Unitech group and its subsidiary companies in the month of December, 2018 to investigate allegations of financial irregularities and diversion of homebuyers’ money by its promoters and directors. Grant Thornton was asked to peruse documents and bank accounts of all group companies of Unitech, their promoters and directors from 2006 onwards by the Apex Court.
Document:
Courtesy/By: Shravani Sharma
|
16 Jul 2019
