Nama Nage’s assets worth Rs 80 crore have been seized by the Enforcement Directorate in Telangana.

HYDERABAD: The TRS MP and Lok Sabha floor leader, Nama Nageswara Rao, and members of his family were arrested on Monday after the Enforcement Directorate seized 28 immovable properties and other assets worth Rs 80 crore from them.

The Enforcement Directorate has attached assets belonging to Madhucon Projects Limited, Ranchi Expressway Limited, and their directors and promoters in connection with a money laundering investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The TRS MP is a promoter and director of the Madhucon group of companies, as well as a personal guarantor for a large bank loan that the company was unable to repay. The ED also seized the registered office of the Madhucon group of companies as well as the accused’s Jubilee Hills residence.

Nageswara Rao and his family members own shares in the Madhucon group of companies worth Rs 67 crore in Hyderabad, Khammam, and Prakasam districts, as well as Rs 13.6 crore in movable assets.

In July of this year, the ED attached 105 immovable properties and other assets worth Rs 73 crore belonging to the Madhucon group of companies and its directors and promoters. The assets of Nageswara Rao, as well as those of other promoters and directors, were also attached.

The ED discovered that the Madhucon group’s promoters siphoned off loans by assuming the entire engineering, procurement, and construction contract of a special-purpose vehicle and receiving massive mobilization and material advances. According to the ED, promoters diverted funds to other projects. According to the ED, the accused also generated Rs 75.5 crore in direct cash, which they then repaid through six shell entities.

The shell companies were Usha Projects, Shree BR Visions, Shree Dharma Sastha Constructions, Sree Nagendra Constructions, Ragini Infrastructure, and Varalakshmi Constructions. All were under the control of chairman Nama Nageswara Rao and promoter Nama Seethaiah, according to the ED. The subcontractors, according to ED, were based in AP and Telangana, while the project was in north India.

According to ED, they took large advances from Madhucon Projects Ltd using bank loan funds and then paid large sums back to the group under the guise of using its equipment and labour. The ED discovered a direct diversion of Rs 361 crore from a bank loan obtained by Ranchi Expressway Ltd.