The Enforcement Directorate has arrested Omkar Group Chairman Kamal Gupta and Managing Director Babu Lal Verma in connection with the Rs 22,000 crore slum rehabilitation fraud case.
Omkar group is alleged to have taken thousands of crores in loans from several banks, including an exposure of Rs 450 crore from Yes Bank, for the slum rehabilitation project.
On Monday, the Enfrocement Directorate (ED) began conducting raids at 10 premises belonging to the Omkar Group. The raids went on until Wednesday morning.
Sources told Moneycontrol that a large number of incriminating documents had been recovered from the offices and residences that were searched by ED officials.
Babulal Verma and Kamal Gupta were brought to the ED office on January 27 afternoon and questioned.
Sources said the two had not been cooperating with the probe and so their custodial interrogation was required.
A source told Moneycontrol that Gupta and Verma will be produced in the special PMLA court on January 28.
The Omkar group was under investigation by the Mumbai police's Economic Offences Wing as a petition had been filed in 2019 against the Omkar Group and Golden Age group of Companies in the Bombay High court. The petition alleged that the two firms had indulged in forgery of documents, creating false documents in the name of slum-dwellers.
The petition also alleged that Omkar group officials were helped by officials from the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) in getting the Letter of Intent (LoI) for development of the project. They allegedly used this LoI to get loans amounting to around Rs 22,000 crore from various banks.
Omkar group is one of the largest real estate outfits in Mumbai, dealing mainly in premium real estate projects in the city's suburbs. It is best known for the iconic Omkar 1973 project in Worli, in which many high-profile people have bought flats. Omkar Group is the largest real estate company in the SRA project.