NEW DELHI: In one of the single-biggest restitution exercises undertaken by ED, involving the 32 lakh victims of the Agri Gold ponzi ‘scam’, the agency has begun the sale of attached properties, worth over Rs 6,000 crore, across multiple states.
With the concurrence of the Supreme Court and the Andhra Pradesh HC, favouring distribution of attached ‘proceeds of crime’ to poor investors, ED last week moved a special PMLA court in Nampally, Hyderabad, against the Agri Gold group of companies and their promoters, seeking to dispose of the attached properties located in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, and Odisha.
In the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, PM Narendra Modi had said he was exploring options of changing the law, if necessitated, to reimburse victims of frauds by using seized assets of perpetrators of scams.
However, there is already a provision under section 8(8) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, under which attached assets confiscated by ED can be restored to “a claimant with a legitimate interest in the property, who may have suffered a quantifiable loss as a result of the offence of money laundering”. ED’s panchnama for such transfer of attached property may be used as evidence during trial, according to the law.
“The attached assets for which application has been filed by ED for their sale and restoration include 2,310 residential and commercial plots, apartments as well as an amusement park, Haailand, at Chinnakakani in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district,” a senior official said. Out of the 2,310 attached properties, 2,254 are in Andhra Pradesh, 43 in Telangana, 11 in Karnataka and two in Odisha.
Earlier, the Andhra Pradesh HC had allowed restitution of properties attached by CID under provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Protection of Depositors of Financial Establishments (APPDFE) Act.
“Since the objectives of the APPDFE Act and the PMLA, insofar as restitution of properties to victims is concerned, are not contradictory to each other, and since the process of restitution in terms of section 6(4) of the APPDFE Act could also be done in terms of section 8(8) of PMLA, the matter went up to the Supreme Court, which while keeping the question of law open, ruled in favour of disbursal of the attached amounts to the depositors,” the official said.
The agents of Agri Gold scheme collected more than Rs 6,400 crore from 32 lakh customers. Andhra Pradesh CID, which had filed the predicate offence against the accused in 2018, had moved the HC earlier, seeking release of ED attachment so that it could distribute the money to the victims.
Agri Gold group and its promoters Avva Venkata Rama Rao and his family members Avva Venkata Seshu Narayana and Avva Hema Sundara Vara Prasad were arrested by ED in Dec 2020. So far, the special court has taken cognisance of two chargesheets filed against them and 20 other accused.