BENGALURU: Enforcement Directorate sleuths on Friday arrested Sushil Panduranga Mantri, 59, director of Mantri Developers Private Ltd, under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
Accused Sushil Mantri was produced before a local court on Saturday. He will be in ED's custody for 10 days.
An ED press note on Saturday said: "Sushil P Mantri, director of Bengaluru-based real estate entity Mantri Developers Private Limited, has been arrested in connection with the ongoing investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002."
The agency initiated the money-laundering investigation in March 2022 on the basis of an FIR registered in Subramanyapura police station against the company and its directors and many other employees.
Many homebuyers had filed a complaint with police as well as with ED, alleging that accused entities/persons were involved in money laundering and induced prospective buyers with rosily painted schemes and misleading brochures, falsification of delivery timelines and window-dressing. They collected more than Rs 1,000 crore as advance money from thousands of buyers, but the flats weren't handed over even after seven to 10 years.
During investigation, it was noticed that the company offered various Ponzi-like schemes which were named as buy-back plans, and advance money was collected for the flats/homes. In some cases, the company hadn't refunded the amount to buyers even after clear direction from Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), the ED said.
ED said its probe revealed that the amount collected from buyers, which was meant for construction of projects, was diverted by the company management for personal use or for other fraudulent purposes.
Currently, the group has outstanding loans of around Rs 5,000 crore from various financial institutions, of which approximately Rs 1,000 crore is overdue and some of the loans have been termed non-performing assets (NPA). It was also revealed during investigation that the company cross-collateralized its assets to different financial institutions for taking multiple loans on the same assets, ED said.
