ED searches 10 locations of Lucknow based realty firm

LUCKNOW: Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted comprehensive searches on Wednesday at ten locations of the Lucknow-based real estate firm Tulsiani Group across three states – Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Haryana, confirmed senior ED officials. They said that the firm was accused of duping gullible investors and a bank of several crores, leading the ED to register a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and further investigation is on.
The ED officials confirmed that evidence was found against the group for committing fraud against the bank and deceiving investors to the tune of over ₹30 crore. They further said that additional searches were carried out at ten locations in Lucknow, Prayagraj, Gautambuddh Nagar, Delhi, and Gurugram to gather more evidence related to the fraud. These locations included four in Lucknow, three in Prayagraj, and one each in Gautambuddha Nagar, Delhi, and Gurugram.
The ED has seized cash and incriminating documents related to the fraud during the searches.
Notably, the ED had registered the PMLA case based on the cases lodged by investors after the real estate firm turned defaulter after taking loan worth several crores from Punjab National Bank. The ED officials said the real estate group had taken loan of ₹4.63 crore on forged documents. When the bank attempted to communicate with the directors of the group, they did not respond. Subsequently, the bank filed an FIR against the firm’s directors Mahesh Tulsiani and Anil Kumar Tulsiani, as well as some other directors, at Hazratganj police station while some investors lodged an FIR against Ajay Tulsiani and Anil Tulsiani with the Lucknow police.