Kolkata1 minute ago
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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a supplementary charge sheet against the Sahara India Group in the Kolkata court. It mentions a chit fund scam worth Rs 1.74 lakh crore.
The ED has accused Sahara founder Sapna Roy, wife of late Subrata Roy, son Sushant Roy. Many senior officials of the group including Anil Valparmpil Abraham and Jitendra Prasad (JP) Verma are also among the accused.
The ED has described Sushant as a fugitive. He did not attend the inquiry. The ED is in the process of issuing non-bailable warrants against them. There are more than 500 FIRs against Sahara. Out of these, the allegations lodged in about 300 come under the purview of PMLA.
ED has also accused Subrata Roy’s wife Sapna Roy in the charge sheet.
FIR was registered in three states
The ED started the investigation with three FIRs registered in Odisha, Bihar and Rajasthan. This was registered against our India Credit Cooperative Society Limited and other Sahara institutions.
Recently, nine campuses associated with Sahara Group were raided in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Mumbai, in which documents related to land and share deals were seized. Supplementary Chargesheet has been filed on the basis of new evidence.
Property deal show valid from political contacts
The role of Anil Abraham and JP Verma is underlined in the charge sheet. The Chairman of Abraham Sahara was the executive director in the Core Management (CCM) office. He played a central role in big decisions and property deals. Verma has been described by ED as ‘Long-Time Associate’ and Property Broker. It is alleged that he used to play an important role in getting cash transactions and secret deal routes at the ground level. The ED claims that both of them sold Sahara properties, made cash around and tried to make them valid by using political and business networks.
SEBI started the refund process
SEBI started the process of refunding investors illegally 24 thousand crores after the Supreme Court order. At the same time, the focus of the ED investigation is how Sahara invests the money of investors in benami properties and deals through money laundering. That is, SEBI is working on providing their money back to investors, while ED is tightening the screws at the root of crime.
Ambi Valley, Earning Property from Sahara City Crime
According to the charge sheet, Sahara ran Pongji schemes through several companies. Old liabilities are paid from the new amount. The real liability was hidden by manipulating the accounts. The ED found that Sahara used investors’ money to strengthen electoral and business networks. Sahara’s Project Ambi Valley (707 acres) and Sahara Prime City (1,023 acres) have also described as part of the property acquired from crime.
