Enforcement Directorate attaches 84-cr assets of Kanva group promoters

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has attached over Rs 84-crore worth assets in a money laundering probe linked to an alleged funds embezzlement case against a Karnataka-based cooperative society and its promoters, the central agency said Saturday.

The properties, provisionally attached under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), include agricultural and non-agricultural land, buildings, residential flats and factories. These assets are in the names of N Nanjundaiah (director of Kanva Group of companies), his family members, some related entities and Harish S, founder director and president of Sree Kanva Souhardha Co-Operative Credit Limited (SKSCCL). The assets, worth a total Rs 84.40 crore, are located at Nelamangala, Koratagere, Chikkabalapur, Srirangapatana and Bengaluru and at Madakasira (Anantpur district) in Andhra Pradesh, the ED said in a statement. Nanjundaiah was arrested from Bengaluru by the agency in this case in August last year. He is in judicial custody at present. A charge-sheet was subsequently filed by the ED before a special PMLA court in Bengaluru. The ED case, under criminal sections of the PMLA, was filed after studying at least three FIRs filed by the Bengaluru police and a complaint made by the registrar of cooperative societies against Nanjundaiah and others.

It was alleged that the accused society and its promoters "collected Rs 650 crore deposits from the members of public, assuring high rate of interest through commission agents, without maintaining required liquidity". "SKSCCL collected the amounts, through unauthorised collection centres and agents, from more than 1,3000 gullible investors by luring them to pay higher rate of interest (ranging from 12-15 per cent) but cheated them by not paying promised interest and not returning the principal amount even after the maturity," the ED alleged.