Hyderabad: The Enforcement Directorate’s Hyderabad Zonal Office has successfully accomplished the process of restitution of attached properties worth about Rs 3,339 crore to the victims of Ponzi schemes launched by the Agri Gold group of companies.
The value of properties at the time of attachment was about Rs.3,339 crore and the present market value is expected to be more than Rs. 6,000 crore, the ED said in a statement on Monday.
This restitution exercise marks a significant step in the ED’s efforts to restore properties to their rightful claimants and to ensure that Proceeds of Crime (POC) are returned to those affected, the central agency said.
In December 2024, the ED filed a restitution application under Section 8(8) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 before the special PMLA court of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge, Hyderabad for the release of movable and immoveable properties attached by it to the Crime Investigation Department (CID), Andhra Pradesh so that they could be restored to the victims of the Agri Gold ponzi schemes under the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Protection of Depositors of Financial Establishments (APPDFE) Act, 1999.
The court, in its order on February 21, allowed the restitution petition filed by the ED, thus paving the way for the restoration of attached assets to the victims. The attached assets for restitution has been include more than 2,300 parcels of agricultural land, residential/commercial plots and apartments as well as an Amusement Park in the name of ‘Haailand’ at Chinnakakani in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district.
Out of the total 2,310 attached immovable properties, 2,254 are in Andhra Pradesh, 43 in Telangana, 11 in Karnataka, and 2 in Odisha.
The ED initiated investigations against the Agri Gold group of companies in 2018 on the basis of several FIRs registered in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Odisha and Andaman & Nicobar. Agri Gold group of companies had collected deposits from around 19 lakh customers and 32 lakh account holders in the name of real estate investment with a promise of high returns or a residential plot.
The investigation revealed that Agri Gold Group ran a fraudulent Collective Investment Scheme in the guise of real estate business, for which more than 130 companies were floated. These companies used to collect deposits as ‘advances for plots’ from depositors, without commensurate land being available with the company.
“By adhering to this business module, the accused lured lakhs of gullible persons and got deposits from them. These funds were thereafter diverted to various industries like power/energy, dairy, entertainment, health (Ayurvedic), farmland ventures etc, without the knowledge of the depositors and the companies defaulted in returning the deposits either in cash or in kind as agreed upon. Thousands of commission agents were engaged by the Agri Gold group to lure people and they managed to collect around Rs. 6380 crore from more than 32 Lakh investor accounts,” the ED said.
During the course of the PMLA investigation, movable and immovable properties spread across various states and worth around Rs 4,141.2 crore were attached by the ED. The ED had also arrested Avva Venkata Rama Rao, Avva Venkata Seshu Narayana Rao, and Avva Hema Sundara Vara Prasad in December 2020 and filed a prosecution complaint before the Special PMLA Court, Hyderabad against 14 accused persons and entities in February 2021.
Cognisance of the offence of money laundering against all the accused was taken by the court on August 29, 2023. Subsequently, a supplementary prosecution complaint was filed on March 28, 2024, against 22 accused and cognisance of the same was taken by the court on November 4, 2024.
(IANS)
