Adarsh credit cooperative society embezzlement case: ED attaches assets worth nearly Rs 1500 cr

The ED has attached immovable and movable properties worth whopping Rs 1489 crores in connection with embezzlement of public deposits by Adarsh Credit Cooperative Society Limited (ACCSL), the agency said on Monday.

The properties include land and building valued at Rs 1464.76 crore and fixed deposits/balance in various bank accounts of Rs 24.44 crore approximately belonging to Adarsh Group of Mukesh Modi, Virendra Modi and his family; Riddhi Siddhi Group of Mahendra Tak, Saurabh Tak and properties of other accused, it said.

The Enforcement Directorate ( ED) found these properties -- in Rajasthan, Haryana, New Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh -- involved in the offence of money laundering and provisionally attached them under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA).

The agency had initiated investigation on the basis of an FIR lodged in December, 2018 under relevant provisions of the IPC by the Special Operation Group, Rajasthan Police for the offences of cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery of valuable security and criminal conspiracy against Mukesh, Rahul Modi and others of Adarsh Group, officials of ACCSL and other persons.

The FIR was registered on the basis of a complaint of various investors against Mukesh, Rahul and others for not returning their money invested in Adarsh Credit Cooperative Society Limited on maturity.

The probe conducted so far under the PMLA revealed that Mukesh, in collusion with his relatives Virendra, Rahul and other associates, siphoned off depositors' funds from ACCSL by way of inter linked fraudulent transactions.

Mukesh, his relatives and associates incorporated several companies/firms/Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) for the sole purpose of diverting funds from ACCSL to their real sstate business by way of availing fraudulent loans, the ED said.

Apart from the above, he infused huge "proceeds of crime" in these companies as share capital from ACCSL, it said.

Investigation also revealed that huge amounts were diverted and siphoned off by means of exaggerated salaries, incentives and commissions to the relatives and companies/firms of Mukesh family, the probe agency said.

The actions of Mukesh and others caused ACCSL a huge loss to the tune of around Rs 4,000 crores excluding interest charged by ACCSL on purported borrowings.

Thus proceeds of crime were generated as a result of criminal activity relating to scheduled offences and accordingly provisional attachment order has been issued under PMLA attaching the assets totalling to Rs 1489 crore, the ED statement said.