NEW DELHI: In a first, Enforcement Directorate went after a group of land grabbers in Chennai that had encroached upon a plot worth Rs 13 crore in Saidapet area, and restituted it to its owner, a significant development in the face of several such cases of usurpation taking several decades to be disposed of and many remaining unresolved.
These land grabbers had sold the encroached property to a third party by forging documents and fraudulently claiming ownership. Though an FIR was registered in the case by the Chennai Police in 2009, not much progress was made.
Subsequently, in 2017, ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), attached the property, traced the money trail to establish proceeds of crime, filed a chargesheet, and with court permission, restituted the land to its owner.
“The current value of the property stands at Rs 12.7 crore and its restitution to the rightful claimant and victim marks a significant step in ED’s ongoing efforts to ensure that the proceeds of crime are returned to those affected,” the agency said on Monday.
ED is investigating a number of land grab cases in different parts of the country and is in the process of restoring them to their rightful owners. The restitution of assets and money to individual victims of scams started with the disbursement of nearly Rs 12 crore of attached fixed deposits (FDs) of the Rose Valley group of companies in Kolkata to around 22 lakh small depositors, who had filed their claims before a court-monitored committee.
In Aug, ED restituted at least 78 flats worth more than Rs 20 crore to homebuyers of SRS group’s SRS Pearl, SRS City and SRS Prime in Gurgaon. This was just the beginning as the agency has attached properties worth Rs 2,215 crore of SRS group… The restitution process began following a directive from SC and the Punjab and Haryana HC.
In another case, the agency has allowed the sale and refund of Rs 185 crore worth of attached property of Jammu-based Surya Pharmaceuticals to SBI in a money laundering case against the company and its directors.
