ED Searches Vatika Premises, Freezes Assets Worth Rs 33 Crore

GURUGRAM: The Enforcement Directorate's Gurugram zonal office has searched seven residential and business premises across Delhi-NCR linked to Vatika Limited and its promoter-directors, and seized or frozen assets worth about Rs 33 crore, the agency said in a statement on Thursday.

The searches were carried out on 25 August under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. ED has recorded an Enforcement Case Information Report against Vatika Limited and promoter-directors Anil Bhalla, Gautam Bhalla and Gaurav Bhalla, besides others. The PMLA file rests on multiple FIRs registered by the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police, alleging fraudulent inducement, non-delivery of residential plots and related offences.

The agency said it has, on a prima facie reading, found a common pattern in the group's Vatika India Next and Vatika India Next-2 projects. Large sums were collected upfront for allotment and sale of residential plots, it said, but a large share of those plots was not handed over even after repeated deadlines. About Rs 260.3 crore was received from complainant entities between 2010 and 2012, against which plots worth around Rs 120 crore were delivered. The rest, the agency said, remained undelivered after 14 years.

During the searches, officers seized property papers relating to the promoters and directors, audited financial statements, Tally data, records on the movement and alleged diversion of funds, and details of money received from complainants, along with digital devices. Three high-end luxury vehicles, jewellery, and bank accounts and securities together valued at about Rs 33 crore were seized or frozen under PMLA, the statement said.

ED has also put various land-owning and group entities, and other persons associated with the group, under the scanner. It alleged that 14 plots in the same project were sold to third parties without the original buyers' consent.

Vatika is a Gurugram-based realty group. India Next and India Next-2 sit in the city's western expansion belt, where thousands of plot buyers have waited through licence delays, layout changes and court cases. The PMLA action does not itself decide those civil claims. It treats the alleged collection of money without corresponding delivery, and the alleged movement of those funds, as a money-laundering trail arising from the Delhi Police FIRs.

The searches were in Delhi-NCR, not only inside Gurugram municipal limits. The investigating office is the Gurugram zonal unit, and the projects named in the ECIR are Gurugram products. Homebuyers who have spent 14 years chasing papers will read Thursday's statement as confirmation that a central agency is now counting the same rupees they have been counting since 2010. What the agency does next — attachments, prosecution complaints, or a longer paper chase — will be written in the PMLA file, not in the old sale deeds.