In one of the oldest PMLA cases, the ED files charges against a Mumbai-based builder.

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) recently filed a chargesheet in the court against developer Shailesh Sawla and two of his firms, Kunal Construction and Sawla Construction, for selling homes to prominent persons in a slum-dwelling project.

It’s one of the ED’s oldest pending laundering of money cases, dating back to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA-2005).

Sawla planned two buildings in the Juhu Taj Society in 2006 to rehabilitate 133 slum people. Sawla, on the other hand, modified plans to build larger units for sale to the wealthy in collusion with BMC and SRA authorities. Sawla was developing a plot on Juhu’s 10th road under the SRA scheme.

Among those who bought flats in the structures disguised as slum dwellers were Bollywood superstars, former army officers, and a retired DGP Maharashtra. Most were incorrectly identified as inhabitants of the Garib Mazdoor Nagar slum.

It is claimed that the ED did not investigate people who acquired flats and did not record their statements because they left the project after the money laundering case was registered.