Director of Supreme Construction’s FD worth Rs 113 crore is attached by ED.

MUMBAI: A villa in Aamby Valley, several residential and commercial buildings in Mumbai, land parcels in Raigarh District, and fixed deposits totaling Rs. 113.5 crore connected to builder Lalit Tekchandani and his associates in a money laundering case are among the properties that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached. In a previous instance, the ED seized/froze investments and fixed deposits totaling Rs 43 crore.

An important businessman related to numerous prominent politicians and RSS functionaries, Tekchandani had helped build a hospital in Nagpur. He became involved in controversy recently when a number of flat purchasers at his Navi Mumbai building claimed he had deceived them.

The affected home buyers filed police cases against him at the Taloja and Chembur Police Stations, based on which the ED registered a money laundering case against him. The ED arrested Tekchandani on March 18, and he is presently under judicial custody.

The ED discovered throughout the inquiry that Supreme Construction & Developer had taken in excess of Rs. 400 Crore in payments from over 1,700 customers for a housing project located in Taloja, Navi Mumbai. These homeowners were left in the dark without a refund or a flat due to project delays.

The ED found that Tekchandani had created assets in multiple names, including those of family members, and used the money he got from the homebuyers to launder for his own benefit. The ED probe has shown that, with the help of other accused individuals, Tekchandani alienated the properties of Supreme Construction and Developers even after he left the company’s ownership and management.

According to the ED in a news statement on Thursday, the investigation has also shown that the accused were moving the company’s receivables into the account of a related organization in order to siphon off the funds.