In a Rs 700-crore money laundering case, a Mumbai city court handed over the custody of city-based builder Vijay Machinder to Enforcement Directorate officials’ custody.
He was arrested in a case of cheating on several flat buyers on the charges of money laundering. The court gave him to the ED custody till January 12 for further investigation when he was arrested and presented before the magistrate of a Mumbai court.
“In such cases, a huge amount of public money has been involved. Financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 734 crore have taken place. The onus is on the ED to trace what happened to the money. That is why the accused is handed over to the ED,” the court remarked.
In this case, the complainants paid Rs 15.6 crore to the builder through one bank and Rs 28 crore through another bank in a deal related to the purchase of 14 flats. However, the builder gave allotment letters allotting only three flats. He did not give possession of at least one flat to the rest of the buyers. Moreover, he did not commence the construction activity either. Therefore, the ED, which probed the cases, confirmed that irregularities to the tune of Rs 734.27 crore had taken place in the deal.
