Bengaluru, June 26 : Bengaluru-based real estate entity Mantri Developers Private Limited’s Director Sushil P Mantri has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the ongoing investigation under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
ED initiated a money laundering investigation in March 2022 on the basis of an FIR registered in Subramanyapura Police Station in 2020 against the company and its directors and many other employees.
Many home buyers had filed complaint with the police and the ED alleging that accused entities-persons are involved in money laundering and had induced the prospective buyers with rosily painted schemes, showing misleading brochures, falsification of delivery time lines and window dressing and collected more than Rs 1000 crore as advance money from thousands of buyers, ED said in a statement.
However, they have not been given possession of their flats even after passing of 7 to 10 years.
During investigation, it was also noticed that the company offered various Ponzi like schemes which were named as buy-back plans and advance money was collected for the flats/homes, it said.
In some cases, the company has not refunded the amount to the buyers even after a clear direction from the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), ED said.
Investigation by ED revealed that the amount collected from the buyers by the company which were meant for construction of the projects have been diverted for the personal use by the management of the company or for such other fraudulent purposes and hence the project is stalled.
Currently, the group has total outstanding loans of approximately Rs 5000 crore from various financial institutions, out of which approximately Rs 1000 crore is overdue and some of the loan has been termed as NPA.
It was also revealed during investigation that the company has cross collateralised its assets to different financial institutions for taking multiple loans on the same assets.
Sushil Mantri has been produced before the Court and granted ED custody for 10 days.
Further investigation is under progress.
