The ED seizes assets worth Rs. 78 crore in the Heera Gold scam.

HYDERABAD: In the Heera Gold scam case, the Enforcement Directorate has temporarily attached the immovable and movable assets of SA Builders and Developers and Neelanchal Technocrats worth Rs 78 crore.
It was claimed that the accused real estate firm diverted funds from the crime proceeds to shell companies in Kolkata and Shillong. The properties were attached in accordance with the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Nowhera Sheik and her Heera Group of companies were discovered by ED sleuths transferring 148 crores to SA Builders and Developers for the purchase of properties in Tolichowki. The properties were worth 70 crores and had already been attached in the Heera Group case.

The remaining funds totaling 78 crores were discovered to be parked with SA Builders and Developers, according to the ED. The ED discovered that SA Builders and Developers had transferred 41 crores out of 78 crores to Neelanchal Technocrats Private Ltd and four shell entities in Kolkata and Shillong.

Salarpuria Sattva Group, a real estate developer, received the funds as loans. On November 7, the ED conducted searches at the offices of Salarpuria Sattva Group in Bengaluru, discovering a money trail and attaching immovable properties and bank balances totaling 78 crores as the equivalent value of the crime proceeds.

Syed Akhtar was named as a partner by the ED, and the bank balance of Rs 41 crore traced to Bengaluru-based Neelanchal Technocrats was part of the Salarpuria Sattva Group.

In 2018, the ED filed a money laundering case against Nowhera Sheik and others on charges of collecting over 5,000 crores as an investment from gullible depositors by promising an unreasonably high 36% annual return on investments.

Her Heera Group, on the other hand, failed to repay even the principal amount and duped thousands of investors. In the same case, the ED had attached assets worth 3300 crores.