Q-City Tech Park properties seized by ED

Hyderabad: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday seized property of Q-City Tech Park worth Rs 86.38 crore. The assets of M/s Mack Soft Tech Private Limited, Hyderabad, in the form of Q-City Tech Park was seized.

The properties consisted of 2,500 square yards of land and 2.45 lakh square feet of building space cumulatively worth Rs 86.38 crore under the provisions of Section 37A of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA), in lieu of foreign assets illegally held abroad in contravention of Section 4 of FEMA. The seized Tech park is situated at Survey No.109, 110, 111/2 at Nanakramaguda at Gachibowli here.

The ED sleuths initiated investigation under FEMA on the basis of information that M/s MSTPL remitted huge funds outside India in contravention of FEMA, 1999. During the course of investigation, it was revealed that M/s MSTPL illegally transferred foreign exchange to the tune of US$ 12,500,000 (equivalent to Rs 62.08 Crore) to Orient Guide Investments Limited of Hong Kong under the guise of purchase of a non-existent fake software license.

Further, during the period from November 2011 to December 2016, the company had transferred foreign exchange to the tune of US$ 3,980,000 (equivalent to Rs 24.30 Crore) to Senat Legal Consultancy FZ LLC, UAE and Cresco Legal Consultancy FZ LLC, UAE in the name of Legal Services.

It was proved that this was a sham transaction. The above foreign outward remittances on the pretext of purchase of Software License and Legal Services were made by the company with a view to siphon off funds from India and park them abroad. Illegal holding of foreign assets outside the country is a contravention of Section 4 of FEMA, the authorities said.