Money laundering: ED seizes Audi car, ₹85L after raids on GBP Group

Raids conducted against Punjab-based real estate group Gupta Builders and Promoters (GBP) Private Limited yielded unaccounted cash to the tune of ₹85 lakh, an Audi car and incriminating documents, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Tuesday.

The searches were carried out at 19 locations in Chandigarh, Ambala, Panchkula, Mohali and Delhi on June 3 in connection with a money laundering case stemming from multiple cheating cases registered by homebuyers, the ED said.

Besides the GBP Group office and residences of its directors Satish Gupta and Pardeep Gupta, the central agency also raided the firm’s associates Bajwa Developers Ltd, Kumar Builders and Vinmehta Films Pvt Ltd and residences of their directors Jarnail Singh Bajwa, Navraj Mittal, Vishal Garg and others, it said in a statement.

“Incriminating documents pertaining to movable and immovable properties, unaccounted cash of ₹85 lakh and an Audi Q7 car have been seized (during the raids),” the agency said.

The developers are accused of cheating homebuyers by neither delivering flats, plots, commercial units nor returning their money to the tune of ₹325 crore in connivance with various other persons. At least 14 such cases are under investigation in Mohali and Chandigarh.

The probe revealed that the “funds received from homebuyers for development of residential and commercial projects were siphoned off by directors of the company in connivance with their associates and others and have been invested in purchase of various personal assets”.

Multiple projects being developed by the group in Mohali district are stuck, leaving homebuyers in a quandary. Last month, the income tax department had issued a lookout circular against its directors for not submitting tax deducted at source to the tune of nearly ₹30 crore. The realty firm has also been booked for illegally carving out plots near Chandigarh. Another two cases pertain to sale of commercial sites without approval in Mohali.