ED attaches hotel Rang Sharda and land worth Rs 332 Crore in Mumbai money laundering probe

The Enforcement Directorate attached Mumbai’s Hotel Rang Sharda and a Prabhadevi land parcel worth Rs 332 crore under PMLA. The action stems from a probe into the illegal commercial exploitation of MHADA land allotted to a trust for promoting Marathi culture

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday said it has attached a hotel and a land parcel in Mumbai worth Rs 332 crore as part of a money laundering probe into alleged irregularities in the use of a MHADA plot allotted to a trust set up to promote Marathi art and culture.

The attached properties include Hotel Rang Sharda in Bandra and a land in the Prabhadevi area of the western metropolis which are under the “possession and control” of Rang Sharda Hotels Pvt. Ltd., the central agency said in a statement.

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The combined value of these properties is Rs 332.24 crore, it added. The ED case, filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), stems from a Mumbai Police FIR registered on a complaint lodged by the Trustees of Rang Sharda Pratishthan.

The complaint was regarding offences of cheating and criminal breach of trust allegedly committed by Prabhudas Virchand Lotia and Rang Sharda Hotels in relation to a land parcel allotted by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) to the trust at a concessional rate exclusively for promoting Marathi theatre, literature and cultural activities.

Lotia, through Rang Sharda Hotels, wrongfully appropriated and exercised control over the land allotted to the trust and commercially exploited the same in violation of the conditions of allotment and regulatory approvals, the ED said.

“Rang Sharda Hotels failed to hand over the drama theatre and artists’ accommodation to the trust as required and instead utilised the property for operating a hotel, lodging house, restaurant, liquor bar, banquet facilities and other commercial establishments without obtaining the requisite statutory approvals,” the agency said.

Lotia, it alleged, unauthorisedly sold commercial premises at the land allotted to the trust and used these proceeds to acquire the property (the attached land) at Prabhadevi in Mumbai.