The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested promoter of WTC Group, Ashish Bhalla, in connection with a big fake property racket case where the accused is alleged to have robbed thousands of investors out of cash. Multiple raids have been carried out in various states, such as Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Punjab, and the Delhi NCR area, where he was arrested.
ED officials said that the WTC Group had received ₹3,000 crores from investors in 15 real estate projects in the Delhi-NCR region. However, the research found that only a handful of projects were completed while the rest of the investors remained unfulfilled. According to the agency, Bhalla and his accomplices enticed investors with the assurance of returns from plots and commercial spaces and diverted the funds through a multitude of shell companies.
An ED official, who is a senior, also said that the investigation revealed that a large part of the collected funds were pumped into shell entities to amass land in different places. It was also uncovered that Bhalla’s family members had schemed to transfer crores abroad to dubious entities located in Singapore.
As part of the ED crackdown on the case, raids were conducted on 12 places, including Delhi and Faridabad, on February 27. According to investigators, Bhalla went into hiding before the raids and even tried to hamper the investigation by influencing top people against cooperating with authorities. Officials noted that he continued to abscond for several days to escape legal proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), but officials noted that he remains absconding.
The ED identifies Bhalla as the mastermind behind the fraud scheme and the mastermind who unlawfully amassed huge collective financial gains by taking advantage of unaware investors. The diverted funds are being further traced and more scam beneficiaries are being identified.
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