Heera gold scam: ED freezes Rs 50 crore of Salarpuria Sattva group

HYDERABAD: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen Rs 50 crore bank balances of prominent real estate firm Salarpuria Sattva in connection with the Heera gold scam.
The ED found that the real estate company entered into a transaction with the scam-hit Heera Group and money has been routed to shel firms.
The ED conducted searches on the group on November 7 based on the ECIR booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against Nowhera Sheik-owned Heera Gold Exim.
The ED had frozen the cash lying in 316 bank accounts.
The ED has also seized cash in the form of Indian Currency of Rs 29 lakhs approximately and foreign Currencies of multiple countries for which value is being ascertained.
The ED is probing Heera Group regarding layering and transferring the crime proceeds.
During the investigation of the money trail by ED, it was revealed that Rs 41 Crore of Crime Proceeds have been layered and transferred to Bengaluru-based company Neelanchal Technocrats Private Limited which is part of Salarpuria Sattva Group.
Money also sent multiple other shell entities registered in Kolkata, Shillong under the instructions of Promoters, and Directors of Sallarpuria Sattva Group.
Sallarpuria Sattva group is controlled by its Promoter Director Bijay Kumar Aggarwal and its group Directors Pradeep Dhandhania and Ashwin Sancheti who negotiated a real estate deal for a land parcel at Tolichowki, Hyderabad and instructed for transferring proceeds of crime to shell entities.
ED identified other shell companies during the search. It was detected during the search that these funds were re-routed back into the Sallarpuria Sattva Group companies through their group NBFC registered in Kolkata.
Upon further questioning during the Search, the Directors of Sallarpuria group could not explain the business rationale of these transactions and reasons for layering the proceeds of crime through shell entities of Kolkata and Shillong.