On Thursday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officially arrested a former director of Lodha Developers Limited, a real estate firm, in connection with an alleged money laundering case involving Rs 85 crore.
The case against Rajendra Lodha, the accused, is founded on a cheating and forgery complaint lodged under the applicable sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) by the Mumbai police. He was taken into custody in a crime branch case in September of the previous year and has remained in judicial custody since that time.
In its investigation of the money laundering case, the ED presented him before a special court that handles cases filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on a production remand, where he was formally arrested. Following standard procedure, he is scheduled to appear before the ED court on Friday for his initial remand.
The ED has accused Rajendra Lodha, who became a director of the company in 2015, of exceeding his limited authority—initially confined to land acquisition—to execute a series of unauthorized transactions. He allegedly conspired with his son, Sahil Lodha, and close associates to generate, hide, and launder the proceeds of crime, resulting in significant wrongful loss to the company, according to the ED.
The investigative agency highlighted that he orchestrated the diversion of company funds through fictitious possession holders and forged MoUs, withdrew cash unlawfully, and improperly alienated company land and Transferable Development Rights (TDRs) at undervalued prices.
Additionally, he facilitated benami transactions, misappropriated funds through controlled entities, and used company resources for personal gain and for entities associated with his family. The ED stated that Rajendra Lodha enabled the fraudulent and undervalued allocation of residential flats under forged and fabricated permanent alternate accommodation agreements, without any legal entitlement, resulting in wrongful benefits to his associates. According to the investigative agency, the total wrongful loss inflicted on Lodha Developers Ltd exceeded Rs 85 crore.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) underscored various significant techniques employed by the accused to create and launder the “proceeds of crime”: In one particular case, Lodha purportedly circumvented the company to acquire land via front entities such as Usha Properties and Shreeram Realties.
These properties were subsequently sold back to Lodha Developers at substantially inflated prices. In a similar vein, 4,150 square meters of company land in Panvel was transferred to a front entity for merely Rs 48 lakh, despite its market valuation being around Rs 10 crore, resulting in a direct loss of Rs 9.50 crore. The ED uncovered a systematic “bogus possession/barter deal” scheme, wherein forged Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) were utilized to falsely designate individuals as possession holders.
Additionally, the investigation disclosed that land acquired in 2013 under the name of a company employee, Mangesh Puranik, was illicitly transferred to Lodha’s associates following Puranik’s demise and subsequently resold to the company for a significant profit.
