Cooperating with ED into alleged money laundering case, says Bhutani Group

Real estate firm Bhutani Infra on Saturday said it is co-operating with Enforcement Directorate (ED) in its investigation into alleged money laundering and fraud with property buyers.

On Thursday, the ED searched multiple premises of two real estate companies and their promoters in Delhi-NCR as part of a money laundering investigation linked to alleged fraud with homebuyers, officials had said.

The action is being taken against WTC Builder, its promoter Ashish Bhalla and the Bhutani Group, among others, they said.

In a statement on Saturday, Bhutani Infra said it has severed all ties with the WTC Group earlier this month and "is now fully cooperating with the ED in its investigation."  The company said that "it has no financial or operational connections to WTC, and any suggestion to the contrary is entirely false and misleading."  Bhutani Group said "it is not involved in any of the current financial troubles surrounding WTC.

On Thursday, the Gurugram office of the ED raided about a dozen locations in Delhi, Noida (Uttar Pradesh), and Faridabad and Gurugram (Haryana) under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The money laundering probe stems from FIRs filed by Faridabad police and Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing against WTC Builder, Bhalla and the Bhutani Group, the officials had said.