ED attaches assets worth ₹29.45 crore in Alchemist group case

Logo of Enforcement Directorate.
| Photo Credit: PTI

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached properties worth ₹29.45 crore of the Alchemist group companies in connection with a money laundering case.

The group was headed by Kanwar Deep Singh, a former Rajya Sabha member of the All India Trinamool Congress, the agency said on March 30. Earlier this month, it had attached ₹10.29 crore belonging to the TMC in the same case.

“ED investigation also revealed that an amount of ₹10.29 crore was paid by Alchemist Airways Private Limited to various aviation/helicopter companies for the aviation services availed by All India Trinamool Congress (AITC)…during the campaigning for 2014 Lok Sabha elections for its star campaigners like Mamata Banerjee, CM of West Bengal; Mukul Roy, ex-Union Railway Minister; Moon Moon Sen, Nusrat Jahan, MP, TMC, etc.,” it had said.

The newly attached properties include an aircraft, Beech King Air C-90A; land measuring about 250 bighas and 78 bighas in the Shimla and Sirmaur districts of Himachal Pradesh; 15 flats purchased by Alchemist Realty Limited in the Parsvnath Royale Project of Panchkula, Haryana; and some assets in Madhya Pradesh’s Katni.

The ED had initiated the investigation based on the First Information Reports registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and the police in Kolkata and Uttar Pradesh, against several individuals and the Alchemist group companies.

According to the agency, the group collected more than ₹1,800 crore from investors/victims through its companies Alchemist Holdings Limited and Alchemist Township India Limited, on the false promise of providing high returns and giving flats/villas/plots/high rate of interest on the investments. However, the funds were never returned to them. They were allegedly siphoned off and diverted to various group companies.

It was alleged that the Alchemist group had floated a number of companies in various fields for acquiring properties using the funds collected from the investors on various pretexts. “It has also been revealed that huge parcels of land were purchased by the Alchemist group, in the name of third parties so as to camouflage and mask the real ownership of such properties,” said the ED.