The Enforcement Directorate has provisionally attached 58 immovable properties worth ₹27.49 crore in a case alleging cheating, forgery, and fraud by an alleged land Mafioso and his associates.
The properties are registered in the name of the main accused Sudhir Kumar Goyal, his wife Rakhi Goyal, his close associates Jay Prakash and Alok Kumar, and his partnership firm Sri Sidhivinayak Properties. The ED probe is based on several First Information Reports filed by the Uttar Pradesh police.
The police have arrested all the accused persons under the Gangsters Act and persons are lodged in Bulandshahr Jail.
According to the agency, the main accused had made more than 10 illegal colonies, wherein plots were sold at exorbitant prices without change of land use and without any basic infrastructure or facilities. “Sudhir Kumar Goyal, in connivance with a few businessmen and his gang members, used various modus operandi to defraud people,” it said and added that the same plot of land had been sold to many persons, non-existent plots were sold to investors, plots were sold on forged papers, and agriculture land was sold by claiming it to be a residential land.
On January 9, the ED conducted searches at 12 locations linked to the accused. “Documents seized during the search and those gathered from the revenue authorities show that he [Sudhir Kumar Goyal] had deliberately shown the value of most of the transactions below the fair market value and generated huge proceeds of crime in the form of cash, which has been further invested in another illegal colony,” said the ED.