Mumbai, February 13 A special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Mumbai on Friday sent a former director of real estate company Lodha Developers Ltd to the Enforcement Directorate (ED)'s custody until February 20 in an alleged money laundering case worth Rs 85 crore.
The ED's case against the accused, Rajendra Lodha, is based on a cheating and forgery case filed by the Mumbai police's crime branch under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
He was arrested by the crime branch in a cheating and forgery case in September last year, and has been in jail under judicial custody since then. The ED formally arrested him on Thursday in the money laundering case.
The federal investigation agency produced him before Special PMLA Judge R B Rote on Friday and sought his remand for investigating the money laundering case.
The ED alleges that Lodha, who was appointed as a director in the company in 2015, overstepped his limited authority—originally restricted only to land acquisition—to orchestrate a series of unauthorized transactions.
He colluded with his son, Sahil, and close associates to generate, conceal, and launder proceeds of crime, causing substantial wrongful loss to the company, the ED alleges.
The investigation agency emphasizes that he orchestrated the diversion of company funds through fictitious individuals and fabricated contracts, withdrew funds in cash, and unlawfully alienated company land and Transferable Development Rights (TDRs) at undervalued rates.
He facilitated transactions through proxy entities, siphoned funds through controlled entities, and utilized company resources for personal benefit and for entities linked to his family, according to the ED.
Lodha facilitated fraudulent and undervalued allotment of residential flats under forged and fabricated permanent alternate accommodation agreements, without any lawful entitlement, causing wrongful gain to his associates, the financial investigation agency claimed.
According to the ED, the total wrongful loss caused to Lodha Developers was more than Rs 85 crore.
The ED highlighted several key methods used by the accused to generate and launder the "proceeds of crime": In one such instance, Lodha allegedly bypassed the company to purchase land through front entities like Usha Properties and Shreeram Realties.
These lands were later resold to Lodha Developers at grossly inflated prices. Similarly, 4,150 square meters of company land in Panvel in Navi Mumbai was sold to a front entity for just Rs 48 lakh against a market value of about Rs 10 crore, causing a direct loss of Rs 9.50 crore, it said.
The ED found a structured "bogus possession/barter deal" mechanism where forged MoUs were used to falsely claim individuals as possession holders.
Further, the investigation has revealed that a land parcel purchased in 2013 in the name of a company employee, Mangesh Puranik, was fraudulently transferred to Lodha's associates after the staffer's death and then resold to the real estate firm for a massive profit, said the central agency.
