The Enforcement Directorate has attached 1,081 immovable properties worth ₹207 crore in Chennai, Madurai and Ramanathapuram, in connection with a case involving Disc Assets Lead India Limited and others for allegedly cheating investors of ₹1,273 crore.
The assets spread across 3,850 acres are in the name of Disc Assets Lead India, Eagles Eye Real Estates, Meadow Realtors and their key managerial functionaries. They have been attached as part of the money-laundering probe based on an FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing of the Tamil Nadu police, said the agency.
According to the ED, Disc Agrotech Limited — also known as Disc Asset Promoters India Limited and Disc Asset Lead India Limited — was incorporated in 2006. It is alleged that its directors, V. Janarthanan, N. Umashankar, N. Arun Kumar, C. Srinivasan, T. Shyamchander and S. Jeevalatha, collected funds in instalments from a large number of people in different parts of Tamil Nadu, promising them land in return.
The ED probe revealed that the company directors had floated several other entities, including Dal Marketing Solutions Private Limited and Aiyan Marketing Solutions Private Limited, to collect money from the public on behalf of Disc Assets Lead India Limited by circumventing the legal impediments of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act. They collected ₹1,273 crore.
The funds were used to buy immovable properties in Tamil Nadu, in the name of the company, its directors and other unrelated entities. A major portion was siphoned off through the entities floated by them with their close relatives as directors or partners.
“The accused persons cheated its depositors by neither allotting them land nor returning their investment,” said the agency, adding that N. Umashankar, N. Arun kumar and A. Saravana Kumar were earlier arrested in the money-laundering case.
