ED seizes luxury cars, jewellery, cash after raids on Haryana Congress MLA

Four luxury cars, jewellery worth Rs 14.5 lakh and Rs 4.5 lakh in cash have been seized following raids against Haryana Congress MLA Dharam Singh Chhoker and companies “owned and controlled” by him in a money laundering case linked to alleged cheating of homebuyers, the Enforcement Directorate said on Monday.

The 59-year-old legislator from the Samalkha in Panipat district is stated to be the “owner and promoter” of the Mahira real estate group along with his sons Sikander Singh and Vikas Chhoker. The action under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) came after the ED launched searches against the legislator, Sai Aaina Farms Pvt Ltd (now Mahira Infratech Pvt Ltd), other companies of the Mahira Group and some others on July 25, it said in a statement.

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Raids at 11 locations

Eleven locations in Samalkha, Gurugram and Delhi were raided by the federal probe agency. The money laundering case stems from an FIR filed by the Gurugram police against Sai Aaina Farms Pvt. Ltd for “cheating and forgery” as it is alleged to have collected about Rs 360 crore from 1,497 homebuyers under the affordable housing scheme on the promise of providing dwelling units in Sector 68 of Gurugram near Delhi, the ED said.

However, it failed to deliver the houses and missed multiple deadlines, the probe agency said. “The home buyers have been holding protests since one year against the Mahira Group seeking delivery of the promised houses at the earliest,” it said.

The ED also alleged that Chhoker, his sons and other key employees remained “absent” during the searches and have “not joined the investigation till date”. Probe found that the entity (Sai Aaina Farms Pvt. Ltd.) siphoned off home buyers money by booking fake construction expenditures in group entities. Cash equivalent to the fake purchases was received back from the entities providing fake bills/invoices by the directors and promoters of Mahira Group, which was used for personal gains, the agency alleged.

Projects under scanner

It said several personal and family-linked expenditure was booked as construction and business expenditure in group entities. The directors/promoters also diverted homebuyers money to other group entities as loans (which is outstanding for years) for personal gains and preliminary investigations show that they “siphoned off” about Rs 107.5 crore (fake expenses to the extent of Rs 57 crore and loans to group entities to the extent of Rs 50.50 crore) from Sai Aaina Farms Pvt. Ltd. These funds belonged to the home buyers of Sector 68 housing project, the probe agency said.

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The ED said its investigation into financial transactions of four other affordable housing projects being undertaken by the Chhoker-promoted group is in progress and freezing orders in respect of offices and bank accounts of the Mahira Group were issued during the searches.

Four luxury cars (having acquisition value of about Rs 4 crore), jewellery worth Rs 14.5 lakh, Rs 4.5 lakh cash and “evidence related to siphoning of home buyer funds” were seized, the federal probe agency said.

(With agency inputs)