ED Recovers Ramprastha Realty Group Account Books in Money Laundering Probe

New Delhi, Sep 5 (PTI) The ED on Thursday said it recovered "incriminating" evidence and account books after conducting a survey operation against Gurugram-based real estate company Ramprastha Group and some others as part of a money-laundering investigation.

The action under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was undertaken by the federal agency on Wednesday.

The agency alleged more than 1,000 customers of different projects of the group who invested over Rs 500 crore had "not been" handed possession even after they made full or most of the payment more than four-five years ago.

Efforts to seek comments from the company did not fructify.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said in a statement that the money-laundering case stemmed from FIRs of the Haryana Police and the Delhi Police economic offences wings against Ramprastha Promoters and Developers Private Limited, its directors and promoters.

It was alleged in these complaints that the accused persons and entities induced potential homebuyers into purchasing residential units in their projects located in Gurugram during the 2006-2016 financial years.

Homebuyers, according to the ED, were "not offered possession" even after many years and the projects were yet to be completed.

The allegation was of "diversion" of funds and "non-completion" of projects even after the lapse of years of the due date for the completion of the projects, called Ramprastha's Rise, City, SKYZ, and others, it said.

The ED said the owners, controllers and promoters of the Ramprastha Group -- Balwant Singh, Sandeep Yadav and others -- "did not" join the survey operation.

The action "resulted in inventorising and extracts of various documents and incriminating evidence, including digital evidence, books of accounts etc", the ED said.

The company stated on its website that it held a large land bank in Haryana's Gurugram with a combined development potential of over 80 million square feet.

"We have successfully sold 8,000 dwelling units in the region and have a potential to reach near 1,00,000 dwelling units in the days to come," the company said.

The action comes in poll-bound Haryana where elections are scheduled to be held on October 5. The counting of votes will take place on October 8, along with Jammu and Kashmir.