Hyderabad, March 23 – The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Hyderabad Zonal Office, has provisionally attached movable and immovable properties worth ₹17.97 crore belonging to Bharati Builders, its partners, their family members, and others in a case of defrauding homebuyers and investors.
The central agency stated on Monday that the properties were attached under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
It initiated an investigation based on a case registered by the EOW Police Station, Cyberabad, in 2024 against Mulpury Sivarama Krishna, Dupati Naga Raju, Doddakula Narsimha Rao alias Ponnari, and others under Sections 406, 420 of the Indian Penal Code, and under Section 5 of the Telangana Protection of Depositors of Financial Establishments Act for defrauding homebuyers of projects launched by Bharati Builders.
The PMLA investigation revealed that Mulpury Sivarama Krishna, Managing Partner of Bharati Builders, in collaboration with Dupati Nagaraju, launched a pre-launch scheme, whereby more than 450 homebuyers were fraudulently induced to hand over substantial sums of money on the promise of selling flats in the project "Bharati Lake View Towers."
Mulpury Sivarama Krishna fraudulently executed MoUs with investors/homebuyers, assuring the completion of the project, while deliberately concealing and withholding the fact that the necessary statutory permissions were not obtained for the development of the project, and that the land had already been pledged as collateral against loans taken by them. The liabilities of Bharati Builders and the promoters were also deliberately concealed from the homebuyers.
The accused induced investors to invest in their project and defrauded them, thereby generating proceeds of crime of around ₹75 crore in the form of advances collected from homebuyers. The accused also collected ₹17 crore from the homebuyers in cash, the ED stated in a release.
Instead of completing the project, the homebuyers’ funds were laundered towards paying interest on advances, repaying liabilities, investing in immovable properties, paying commissions for converting banking funds into cash, and for other purposes unrelated to the project.
The land parcels purchased by Bharati Builders for the project were sold to unrelated individuals. Moreover, the alienation of project land was deliberately concealed from the homebuyers, and Mulpury Sivarama Krishna continued to collect advances from customers despite the sale of project land.
The ED is continuing further investigation.
