ED attaches assets of Udayanidhi Stalin Foundation

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday said that they have attached immovable properties worth Rs 36.3 crore and seized Rs 34.7 lakh lying in the bank account of the Udayanidhi Stalin Foundation in Tamil Nadu. The firm is accused of receiving the proceeds of crime amounting to Rs 1 crore.

The ED initiated PMLA investigations based on an FIR registered by Central Crime Branch-I, Chennai. In the FIR, it was alleged that the complainant, Gaurav Chachra, Director of Pettigo Comercio Internacional Lda, a subsidiary of the UK-based Lyca Group having a significant presence in India in form of Lyca Productions, Lyca Hotels, had been defrauded of Rs 114.37 crore by the Kallal Group and its directors Saravanan Palaniappan, Vijaykumaran, Aravinth Raj and Vijay Ananth along with, Lakshmi Muthuraman and Preetha Vijayananth.

The ED's probe had revealed that the fraud was actually of an amount of Rs 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.

The ED also conducted a search operations at the premises of the accused and the complainants.

The search operations led to the recovery of various incriminating pieces of evidence in form of digital evidence, documents, properties, suspicious cash and hawala transactions which is still under the ED's scanner.

The trustees of the above said foundation failed to explain the rationale 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 Rs 36.3 crore and movable properties in form of bank accounts with available balance of Rs 34.7 lakh have been attached.

Further investigation in the matter is on.