Four luxury cars, jewellery worth Rs 14.5 lakh, as well as Rs 4.5 lakh in cash, have been seized following raids against Haryana Congress MLA Dharam Singh Chhoker and companies “owned and controlled” by him in a money laundering case linked to alleged cheating of homebuyers, the Enforcement Directorate said on Monday.
The 59-year-old legislator from the Samalkha in Panipat district is stated to be the “owner and promoter” of the Mahira real estate group along with his sons Sikander Singh and Vikas Chhoker. The action under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act came after the ED launched searches against the legislator, Sai Aaina Farms Pvt Ltd (now Mahira Infratech Pvt Ltd), other companies of the Mahira Group and some others on 25 July, it said in a statement. Eleven locations in Samalkha, Gurugram and Delhi were raided by the federal probe agency.
The money laundering case stems from an FIR filed by the Gurugram Police against Sai Aaina Farms Pvt. Ltd. for “cheating and forgery” as it is alleged to have collected about Rs 360 crore from 1,497 homebuyers under the affordable housing scheme on the promise of providing housing units in Sector 68 of Gurugram near Delhi, the ED said. However, it failed to deliver the houses and missed multiple deadlines, the probe agency said. “The home buyers have been holding protests/dharnas since one year against the Mahira Group seeking delivery of the promised houses at the earliest,” it said. The ED also alleged that Chhoker, his sons and other key employees remained “absent” during the searches and have “not joined the investigation till date”.
It was found that an entity—Sai Aaina Farms Pvt. Ltd—siphoned off home buyers’ money by booking fake construction expenditures in group entities. Cash equivalent to the fake purchases were received from the entities providing fake bills/invoices by the directors and promoters of Mahira Group, which was used for personal gains, the agency alleged. Personal and family-linked expenditure was booked as construction and business expenditure in group entities. Directors/promoters also diverted homebuyers’ money to other group entities as loans for personal gains. About Rs 107.5 crore was siphoned from the entity.
