ED arrests Heera Group founder Nowhera Shaik in Gurugram

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Hyderabad Zonal Office, has arrested Nowhera Shaik, founder of Heera Group of companies, in Gurugram for allegedly defrauding over 1.7 lakh investors of Rs 3,000 crore.

Hyderabad: Enforcement Directorate (ED), Hyderabad Zonal Office, has arrested Nowhera Shaik, founder of Heera Group of companies from Gurugram, Haryana, in the case relating to defrauding of investors.

The arrest was made on Thursday under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, the ED said in a release here on Friday.

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She was brought to Hyderabad on Thursday night and produced before the PMLA Court, which remanded her to judicial custody.

According to ED, Nowhera Shaik was hiding in Gurugram under a fake identity using forged documents to evade arrest as the PMLA Court had cancelled her bail and issued a Non-Bailable Warrant (NBW).

In a joint operation with Haryana Police, the ED traced her location and apprehended her. She was accompanied by her associate, Sameer Khan.

The Central agency said it initiated an investigation based on multiple FIRs registered by Telangana Police and Andhra Pradesh Police against Nowhera Shaik, Molly Thomas, Biju Thomas and Heera Group of companies for allegedly defrauding 1,72,114 investors of more than Rs 3,000 crore.

During the investigation by ED, it was learnt that deposits were collected by Nowhera Shaikh from investors across India on the pretext of investment in Heera Group of Companies by offering huge returns of around 36 per cent per annum, and thereafter failed to return their profits/principal amounts.

Nowhera Shaik and related persons diverted the depositors’ funds to their personal accounts through company bank accounts for wrongful gain and amassed huge movable and immovable properties by utilising illegally gained money.

During the investigation, ED identified various properties purchased from the Proceeds of Crime and attached the same under PMLA.

The agency said she had sold some confirmed attached properties of ED by giving a wrong affidavit before the respective Tahsildar/ Revenue Officials and generated further Proceeds of Crime; accordingly, for such offence, FIR was registered against her.

The Supreme Court, while hearing her writ petitions, had issued orders in favour of ED to initiate the auction of all the attached properties prior to trial and confiscation orders of the PMLA court and return the investor’s money through SFIO.

The Supreme Court had also directed Nowhera Shaik to cooperate with ED in the ongoing auction proceedings and execute the sale deed for the properties registered by her in her name or in the name of her associates by utilising the proceeds of crime.

ED had initiated auction proceedings, and some of the properties were successfully auctioned, fetching almost Rs 122 crore. However, Nowhera Shaik failed to cooperate in the execution of sale deeds in favour of successful bidders and made repeated attempts to obstruct the auction proceedings.

The Supreme Court on April 8 directed her to surrender before jail authorities within one week and execute sale deeds of 16 auctioned properties within two months. The apex court ordered that in the event of her defiance, an NBW be issued against her and her bail be cancelled.

As she did not surrender before the jail authorities, ED approached the Special PMLA Court to cancel the bail granted to her and the issuance of NBW. The Special Court issued NBW against her on May 7 with a direction to ED to execute the warrant and produce her before the Court. The Special Court had also cancelled her bail granted in this matter.

ED officials made efforts to trace and apprehend her at known addresses in Hyderabad and Bangalore, but she was not found there. It was learnt that she was absconding to evade arrest. She was traced and arrested in Haryana.

Further investigation in the case is going on, the ED said.