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Siphoning homebuyers’ money: Driver made M3M director to carry out financial fraud, finds ED probe
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) which is investigating real estate developers IREO and M3M for allegedly siphoning funds of investors and home buyers has found that a car driver was appointed as a director of a group company to facilitate transfer of development rights of 78 acres in Rajasthan’s Bhiwadi to five shell companies of M3M group. Each of the five shell companies were given 20% share in the land.
In a supplementary prosecution complaint (a chargesheet) filed in August before a special court at Panchkula hearing Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases, the ED said Roop Kumar Bansal and his brother, Basant Bansal (both arrested) were directors in Misty Meadows Private Limited from June 6, 1997, to December 6, 2010, and June 6, 1997, to August 9, 2010, respectively.
The August 2023 prosecution complaint accessed by Hindustan Times said that Bansal's family driver, Puran Bahadur, became the new director in the said company on August 9, 2010. However, he remained director only for about four months before leaving the position on December 15, 2010. Roop Bansal also left his directorship on December 6, 2010.\
All the said agreements were signed by Bahadur on behalf of the owner company and by Abhisek Basu for developer companies. All the agreements were executed during four months when Puran Bahadur and Roop Bansal were directors in the Misty Meadows Pvt. Ltd,’’ the ED said.
The supplementary prosecution complaint said it emerges that the complete process of transfer of development rights from Misty Meadows to five developer companies was completed in September-November 2010 when Bahadur was the company’s director.
Material evidence collected during the investigation and subsequent findings revealed that Basant and Roop Bansal who founded M3M India in Gurgaon in 2010 and were directors of the company when the diversion of funds took place from the IREO group to M3M Group, the supplementary chargesheet said.