ED attaches Rs 17-cr assets of Rajasthan cooperative society in PMLA case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday said it has attached assets worth over Rs 17 crore of a cooperative society based in Rajasthan's Mount Abu in connection with a money laundering case against it and its promoter.

The federal probe agency said it has issued a provisional order, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), for attachment of hotel Abu Grand in Rajasthan's lone hill station of Mount Abu and farm houses, under-construction real estate projects and residential properties in other parts of the state.

A total of 34 properties estimated to be worth Rs 17.05 crore have been attached, it said.

The case pertains to an alleged chit fund-kind of a scam perpetrated by a multi-state co-operative society named Arbuda Credit Co-operative Society Ltd (ACCSL) and its promoter Rakesh Kumar Agrawal alias Bobby.

"It is alleged that Arbuda Credit Co-operative Society Ltd and its managing director Rakesh Kumar Agrawal and others lured gullible investors to deposit money in various schemes of the credit society by promising them higher returns."

"The entities collected money from innocent people and subsequently siphoned it off through a company Ashtha Real Estate and used the same for other businesses and for purchase and construction of a number of immovable properties," the ED said in a statement issued here.

Probe revealed, it said, that Agrawal "siphoned off" the money from ACCSL and Apni Credit Society through "fake loan accounts" in the said entities and used the same in other businesses.

The agency said it filed a PMLA case in this instance based on a Gujarat police FIR.