ED raids ex NOIDA CEO, builders in fraud case; seizes Rs 42 cr worth of jewellery and cash worth cash, diamonds

New Delhi: The ED has seized cash, gold and diamond jewellery worth more than Rs 42 crore after it raided multiple locations linked to retired NOIDA Authority CEO Mohinder Singh and builders in a money laundering case linked to the alleged duping of home buyers' funds.

The federal probe agency searched premises in Delhi, Noida and Meerut in Uttar Pradesh as well as Chandigarh and Goa on September 17-18 as part of an investigation into alleged fraud by Hacienda Projects Private Limited, its promoters and directors and related entities. The fraud, to the tune of Rs 426 crore, was against home buyers of the Lotus 300 Projects in Noida, the Enforcement Directorate said in a statement.

Office and residential premises of the company, its promoters and related entities such as HPPL, Cloud 9 Projects Pvt. Ltd., Surpreet Singh Suri, Vidur Bhardwaj, Nirmal Singh, Aditya Gupta, Ashish Gupta and that of retired IAS officer Singh were searched, it said.

The money laundering case was filed by the ED on the directions of the Allahabad High Court against Hacienda Projects Pvt Ltd and its promoters for "diversion and siphoning off the hard-earned money of investors and home buyers and ultimately not providing them the promised flats".

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police had initially filed FIRs in this case.

The ED said cash and jewellery worth Rs 42.56 crore was seized during the searches. This included "unexplained" cash of Rs 85 lakh, gold and diamond jewellery worth Rs 29.35 crore,a solitaire diamond worth Rs 5.26 crore, diamond jewellery of Rs 7.1 crore and documents of property worth crores of rupees.