Mumbai: Developer’s top executives held in Rs 410-crore laundering case – Times of India

MUMBAI: After a day of intense questioning, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Omkar Group chairman Kamal Kishor Gupta and managing director Babulal Varma on Wednesday in a Rs 410 crore money laundering case linked to a slum redevelopment project at Wadala. ED will produce them before the special court on Thursday.
The complainant in the case is Aurangabad-based businessman Mahendra Surana who had invested in the Wadala project. Surana had filed a cheating case against Omkar Group and its senior office bearers in March 2020, on the basis of which ED has registered a money laundering case.

ED has been carrying out raids at several premises belonging to Omkar Developers since Monday. ED officials claimed the duo has not been cooperating with the investigation.
An Omkar Group representative said, “We are yet to receive any communication from ED. We are emphatic that Omkar Group is not in violation of any lending norms and slum approvals.”

Surana owns Aurangabad Gymkhana Club Pvt Ltd whereas his brother Surendra Surana manages Surana Construction at Wadala in Mumbai, which was into redevelopment. Surana Construction got a letter of intent (LoI) to redevelop the Anandnagar slum at Antop Hill under the SRA scheme in 2011. Aurangabad Gymkhana had invested Rs 13.5 crore in the project after signing the MOU.
In 2015, Surana Construction signed an agreement with Omkar Group, according to which they decided to transfer 100% shares of all partners to Omkar Group for Rs 165 crore. Subsequently, Omkar Group availed of a Rs 410 crore loan from Yes Bank after mortgaging the properties being redeveloped.
The complainant alleged in the FIR that Omkar Group did not return his investment in the project in accordance with the agreement, after which he approached the National Company Law Tribunal in Mumbai.
The FIR stated that Omkar Group consented to pay Rs 14.3 crore to the complainant and transferred Rs 1.4 crore in August 2019 and issued four post-dated cheques for the remaining amount. Two of these cheques allegedly bounced because the accounts were frozen. The complainant reportedly tried to follow up on the issue with Omkar Group but in vain, following which he filed a police case against Rajendra Varma, Gaurav Gupta, Babulal Varma, Kamal Kishor Gupta, Rahul Maru, and Mohan Subramaniyan at Aurangabad.
In another instance, a petition was filed in Bombay high court alleging that Omkar Group and other companies involved in a similar SRA project at Jogeshwari took loans of Rs 22,000 crore from various banks in the name of the slum plot without an LoI.