Kolkata, March 3 (IANS) In fresh action in connection with the Sahara Prime City land case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided multiple premises of the company and its officials in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and seized electronic evidence, an official said on Tuesday.

The ED’s Kolkata Zonal Office conducted the search operations on February 2 at Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh), Ballari (Karnataka), Bhubaneswar and Berhampur (Odisha), an ED statement said.

Digital evidences such as WhatsApp communications, contact and call records were recovered and seized during the searches, the central probe agency said.

“The financial records and books of accounts of the concerned entities, as well as other incriminating documents were seized for detailed examination,” it added.

“During the searches, statements of various persons were recorded under Section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002,” the ED said.

The searches were linked to the sale of a land parcel of Sahara Prime City Limited at Berhampur in Odisha. The searches were carried out under Section 17(1) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, in connection with an ongoing investigation in the case of Humara India and Others,” an ED statement said.

“It was revealed during the search that around 32 acres (out of total 43 acres) of land in Odisha’s Berhampur were fraudulently sold in December 2025 based on a revoked Board Resolution in favour of a Sahara employee and in violation of the guidelines of the Supreme Court,” the ED said.

“The sale was found to have been carried out on the directions of senior management of Sahara Group. Discrepancies have been noticed between the declared sale consideration and the estimated market value,” the ED added.

“Earlier, the ED initiated the investigation based on FIRs registered under Sections 420 and 1208 of the IPC, 1860, against Humara India Credit Cooperative Society Limited (HICCSL) and others in several states,” the ED statement said.

“More than 500 FIRs have been registered against various Sahara Group entities, with over 300 involving scheduled offences under the PMLA, alleging large-scale cheating of depositors through forced redeposits and denial of maturity payments,” the statement added.

The ED investigation revealed that Sahara Group was operating a Ponzi scheme.

The funds collected were managed in an unregulated manner without depositor oversight, maturity proceeds were not repaid instead reinvested, and books were manipulated to camouflage such non-repayments.

Various intra group transactions reflected that huge liabilities were shifted from one concern to another without any commercial wisdom, the central agency said.

“Finally, huge liabilities were being reflected in four cooperative societies. Despite financial incapacity, the Sahara Group continued to collect fresh deposits. Due to continuous non-repayment of matured amounts of depositors, the outstanding liability, which is having large interest component, has escalated disproportionately as compared to the principal sum originally collected from the depositors over the years,” the ED added.

“It is revealed that substantial deposits were siphoned away to create benami assets, extending loans and misused for personal use, thereby depriving depositors of their legitimate dues,” the ED said.

In this case, five provisional attachment orders have been issued attaching multiple land parcels of Sahara Group, including benami lands and assets of other individuals.

“Three persons have also been arrested in the case and the arrested persons, Anil Vailaparampil Abraham and O.P. Srivastav, continue to remain in judicial custody. A charge sheet and a supplementary charge sheet have been filed earlier,” the ED added.

–IANS

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