The Enforcement Authority (ED) in Kolkata temporarily has 707 acres of land worth about Rs. $146 billion in and around Aamby Valley City in Lonavala. The operation is part of an ongoing investigation into what the Sahara Group calls money laundering. According to the official statement, the land was purchased under the name of Benami, whose funds were transferred from various Sahara Group entities, in violation of the Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The investigation began after registering M/s Humara India Credit Societative Society Ltd. (HICCSL) and other police officers in Odisha, Bihar and Rajasthan for Sections 420 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The ED investigation also found more than 500 FIRs targeting Sahara Group entities, including more than 300 cases related to crimes under PMLA, in 2002. The complaints allege that depositors were deceived for deposit funds, forced to re-deposit them and deny their mature payments, despite repeated requests.
Further investigations show that the Sahara Group is operating the Ponzi scheme using entities such as HICCSL, the Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd. (SHICL). The group allegedly attracted depositors with promises of high returns and commissions, while abusing the collected funds without proper control or transparency. Instead of repaying depositors, the Sahara desert forces them to reinvest their maturity quantities, thus masking non-payment issues by transferring deposits between plans.
Ed’s investigation also found that a portion of the funds collected were sneakily and transferred to create Benami assets and fund the luxury lifestyle of the group’s executives. Some assets were sold and paid in undisclosed cash, further depriving the depositor of due claims. During the investigation, Ed recorded statements from depositors, agents and employees of the Sahara Group and confiscated unexplained cash during the search conducted under Article 17 of PMLA, totaling Rs 298 crore.
