ED Attaches Rs 35 Crore Assets in Suumaya Group Money Laundering Case

Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate provisionally attached properties worth Rs 35 crore in the Suumaya Group case, comprising movable assets in the form of bank balances, Demat holdings and mutual funds, and two immovable properties.Last year, the ED arrested Ushik Gala, promoter of Suumaya Group, in the Rs 137 crore money laundering case. The ED's case was based on an FIR registered at Worli police station on a complaint by Vinaykumar Agarwal of Capalpha Trade Private Limited (CTPL). The complaint alleged that Ushik Mahesh Gala and his associates conspired to cheat and misappropriate funds by inducing CTPL to finance their fictitious business scheme, "Need to Feed" mid-day meal scheme.The ED investigation indicated that the Suumaya group and its associates concocted a bogus Haryana govt contract under the guise of the "Need to Feed" programme to obtain funds and trade financing, thereby converting and projecting non-existent business operations as genuine turnover.ED said that funds received by Suumaya group entities were diverted by Ushik Gala to Delhi and Haryana-based dummy agro trader entities through an agent to falsely depict genuine procurement. No actual agro purchases occurred; instead, the diverted funds were routed back to Ushik Gala through a combination of cash and RTGS entries from other shell entities, said ED.It also found that Suumaya created fake invoices and lorry receipts to simulate large volumes of trade, resulting in circular transactions amounting to Rs 5,000 crore, only about 10% of which were genuine. These transactions were done in a circular pattern that led to an increase in the turnover of the involved entities.The inflated transactions artificially boosted Suumaya turnover from Rs 210 crore to Rs 6,700 crore in two years and caused its share price to soar astronomically, thereby giving a misleading picture to investors in its listed group entities, said ED.