Mumbai, Oct 6 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Mumbai Zonal Office-II, has provisionally attached 88.47 acres of land parcels at Alibaug in Maharashtra, currently valued at Rs 336 crore, in a money laundering case involving Jai Corp Limited and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, the agency said in a statement.
The ED initiated the investigation based on an FIR registered by the CBI’s Economic Offences Branch, Mumbai, following a Bombay High Court order dated January 31, 2025.
The case names Jai Corp Limited, Urban Infrastructure Venture Capital Fund (UIVCF), Urban Infrastructure Trustees Ltd and others, alleging financial irregularities, diversion of funds and money laundering.
According to the ED, in 2006-07 Jai Corp Limited launched the Urban Infrastructure Venture Capital Fund and raised Rs 2,434 crore from a large number of investors, including public sector banks and other public sector financial institutions, it said. The funds were invested in several special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to undertake real estate projects across India.
Investigation revealed that the fund’s term was illegally extended beyond the permissible limit without SEBI approval. SEBI subsequently ordered the winding up of the fund and directed that investors be provided an exit by valuing the assets held in the SPVs through an independent valuer.
The ED found that the fair value of the fund’s share in the SPVs was fraudulently undervalued at Rs 269.20 crore in connivance with the management of UIVCF. As a result, investors exited at a significantly reduced amount. Residual units of the fund were then acquired at a much lower value by five entities linked to the promoters of Jai Corp Limited.
One of the SPVs, Neelkanth Township and Constructions Private Limited, in which UIVCF had invested Rs 51 crore, was used to acquire the Alibaug land. The fair market value of the fund’s share in this SPV was allegedly suppressed and acquired at an undervalued price by the five related entities. This led to the generation of proceeds of crime amounting to Rs 230 crore.
A provisional attachment order was issued on October 31, 2022, attaching the SPV’s immovable properties, then valued at Rs 230 crore. Their present market value stands at Rs 336 crore.
Earlier, searches in the case resulted in the seizure of approximately Rs 1.86 crore in cash and the freezing of demat accounts and mutual fund balances worth Rs 99.47 crore.
Further investigation is in progress.
Source: IANS
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