ED attaches HP CM’s farmhouse worth Rs 27 crore

New Delhi: Tightening the noose, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday attached a farmhouse with a market value of around Rs 27crore in connection with its money laundering probe against Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh and others.

The agency issued a provisional order attaching the farmhouse under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and said while the book value of the asset is Rs 6.61crore, its market value is Rs 27.29crore, as per a valuation done by the Income Tax department.

The farmhouse (in Dera Mandi near Mehrauli), it said, is in the name of Ms Maple Destinations and Dreambuild, a firm in which Mr Singh’s son, Vikramaditya, is a major shareholder and his daughter Aprajita a minor shareholder. Both are also listed as the directors of the firm, it said.

Sources in the agency said the ED inquiry has revealed the property in the upmarket south Delhi area of Dera Mandi near Mehrauli was allegedly purchased “out of laundered money through shell firms”. It indicated the funds were paid as quid pro quo by the director of a Delhi-based firm for establishing a hydro power plant in HP’s Chamba district. The ED said its probe found that “illicit money of Singh was also invested in purchase” of this asset.

“The farmhouse was purchased for Rs 1.20crore. The payment was made by two cheques of Rs 15lakh each (Rs 30 lakh) and two cheques of Rs 45lakh each (Rs 90 lakh). The probe further revealed Rs 5.41crore was paid in cash to buy the farmhouse, and that the funds had been provided through Vakamulla Chandrashekar, director of Tarini Group of Companies, engaged in hydro power projects.

It said that “incidentally, Chandrashekar’s company was awarded Saikothi plant in Chamba, Himachal Pradesh” and the cheque amount to buy the farmhouse was given from his personal bank accounts. “He (Chandrashekar’s) had given Rs 5.9crore to Singh and family members, out of which Rs 90lakh was transferred from the account of Singh to his son Vikramaditya, which was ultimately utilised to buy the farmhouse by Ms Maple Destinations and Dreambuild Private Limited,” it said. The funds provided by Mr Chandrashekar were “routed through certain paper entities” or shell firms, it said. “The directorate (ED) on investigating these firms came to the conclusion that these were paper concerns or shell companies opened in name of employees with meagre salary, primarily for providing accommodation entries and the addresses of the firms were fake. The ED had attached assets valued at Rs 7.93crore in this case in March 2016, and with this latest order, the total attachments stand at Rs 35.22crore.