ED attaches Sahara’s 707-acre Aamby Valley

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached the 707-acre luxurious Aamby Valley City and its picturesque surroundings in Maharashtra’s Lonavala, worth Rs 1,460 crore, as part of a money laundering investigation against the Sahara Group and its entities.

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The residential and entertainment city nestled in the Sahyadri mountain ranges in Pune district was once touted by its creators as the country’s “first planned hill city” boasting of large golf courses, lakes, villas, chalets and cottages for “premium living”.

It is located about 110 km from Mumbai and around 90 km from Pune, two of Maharashtra’s metropolitan cities that offer jobs, opportunities and a large platform for a host of businesses.

The ED said the action was taken under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the land was purchased in “benami” names with funds “diverted” from Sahara Group entities.

The federal agency had initiated its investigation on the basis of three FIRs registered under sections 420 and 120B of the IPC against Humara India Credit Cooperative Society Ltd (HICCSL) and others by the police in Odisha, Bihar and Rajasthan.

Over 500 FIRs have been filed against the Sahara Group entities and related persons. More than 300 of them are over allegations that depositors were cheated into depositing funds, forced to redeposit funds without their consent and were denied their maturity payments despite demanding payouts several time.

The ED probe revealed the Sahara Group was running a Ponzi scheme through various entities such as HICCSL, Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Limited, Saharayn Universal Multipurpose Cooperative Society, Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited, Sahara India Commercial Corporation Ltd, and other Sahara group entities.