Hisar ponzi scheme case: IT engineer held under money laundering Act

New Delhi, March 11

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today said that it had arrested a software engineer Pranjil Batra under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in a ponzi case linked to Hisar-based company M/s Future Makers Life Care private Limited and others for cheating thousands of depositors in several parts of the country through various schemes.

Batra, a software engineer, who looked after the software of the company, was later sent to the ED custody for five days by a special court in Haryana, the agency said in an official statement.

In the statement, the ED said that Batra had siphoned off funds worth over Rs 50 crore from the accounts of Future Makers Group by creating fake IDs and using the bank accounts of his family members, close associates and shell companies.

“He (Batra) used these funds, which are proceeds of crime, for purchase of properties, jewellery and shares of high-net worth shell companies. He sold some of the immovable properties acquired from the proceeds of crime to the entities controlled by him,” it added.

The ED also alleged that the man was “non-cooperative and resorted to withholding relevant information and misleading the investigation” during questioning and, therefore, the agency sleuths arrested him.

The PMLA case was filed by the ED after studying multiple FIRs filed against the group by the Haryana and Telangana police. “Ponzi schemes run by the group were based on pyramidal structure where the persons at the top of the pyramid gained at the behest of the loss borne by the persons at base of the pyramid,” the ED said. —