Movable and immovable assets like land, real estate projects, commercial projects, residential houses, a school, cinema hall, balances in bank accounts and fixed deposits, totalling to Rs 2,510.82 crores, of the SRS Group, its promoters, their family members and associate companies have been attached, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said, in a statement on January 9, 2020. A provisional order for attachment of these properties, has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The Group and its promoters have been accused of allegedly making fraudulent promises of giving high returns to investors, in the guise of investments in real estate units like shops, plots, flats and apartments, among others.
The SRS Group, as per information provided on its official website, is a diversified business house with a ‘strong presence’ across multiple sectors that include gold and jewellery, commodities, cinemas, retail, hospitality, financial services, real estate, education and health care.
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The ED said its probe found that the promoter of the Group, Anil Jindal and founder directors, Jitender Kumar Garg and Praveen Kumar Kapoor, along with other accomplices ‘hatched a criminal conspiracy’ and lured investments from several individual and institutions on fake promises of high returns in the guise of investments. Jindal was arrested by the Faridabad Police in 2018 as part of the probe.
“These investments were later siphoned off into group companies through various shell companies of the group having dummy directors, who were mainly SRS Group employees,” the agency said. “Further, they presented fake and fabricated balance sheets in order to enhance their turnover and balance sheets,” it said. The accused kept investors in the dark by not giving investor-specific investment plans, the ED alleged.
