ED attaches Rs 115-crore properties of Chennai developer

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday said it has provisionally attached immovable properties at Guindy near here worth about Rs 115 crore of real estate developer VGN Developers Pvt Ltd.

In a statement issued here, the ED said the provisional attachment of 10.46 acre land had been made under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED said the land was bought by VGN Developers in 2013 from Hindustan Teleprinters Ltd (HTL), a Government of India undertaking.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against VGN Developers for causing wrongful loss of Rs 115 crore to the central government in the land acquisition.

The CBI registered the case as the land was acquired by VGN Developers from the State Bank of India (SBI)'s Stressed Assets Management Branch through a private treaty sale under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002, or SARFAESI Act, to recover dues from HTL.

The CBI had in its FIR alleged that an official of SBI, VGN Developers and others conspired and sold the prime land for Rs 272 crore while the guideline value was Rs 387 crore.

The ED initiated investigations under the PMLA and discovered that the proceeds of crime in the form of wrongful gain derived by VGN Developers has been integrated in the construction of multi-storey residential apartments for sale to general public in the name of "VGN Fairmont", the statement said.

--IANS

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