The Directorate of Enforcement has provisionally attached various immovable properties across Tamil Nadu and has further attached ₹34.7 lakh available in the bank account of Udayanidhi Stalin Foundation in the case of Kallal Group and others.
The ED initiated investigations on the basis of an FIR registered by Central Crime Branch-I, Chennai under various sections of the IPC wherein it was alleged that the complainant (Gaurav Chachra, Director of M/s Pettigo Commercio Internacional Lda, a subsidiary of the U.K. based Lyca Group having significant presence in India in form of Lyca Productions, Lyca Hotels etc.) had been defrauded of ₹114.37 crore by the Kallal Group and its directors/founders Saravanan Palaniappan, Vijaykumaran, Aravinth Raj and Vijay Ananth along with, Lakshmi Muthuraman and Preetha Vijayananth.
Investigations revealed that the fraud is actually of an amount of ₹300 Crore as the Lyca Group had also made other investments/loans to the accused group and its entities without any due diligence or rationale. This resulted in searches at both the accused and complainants-related entities on April 27, 2023, and May 16, 2023, and found various incriminating evidence in the form of digital evidence, documents, properties, suspicious cash and hawala transactions which is still under the ED scanner and investigations.
Meanwhile on May 25, 2023, in order to secure part of the proceeds of crime ED has provisionally attached various immovable properties across Tamil Nadu, valued at ₹36.3 crore and further attached ₹34.7 lakh available in the bank account of Udayanidhi Stalin Foundation as it received the proceeds of crime amounting to ₹1 crore. The trustees of the above said foundation failed to explain the rational for the above receipt from the parties involved in the case.
Thus total proceeds of crime in the said case is around ₹300 crore of which immovable properties valued at ₹36.3 crore and movable properties in the form of a bank account with an available balance of ₹34.7 lakh have been attached. Further investigation is in progress.