Courtesy The Daily Mirror

An under-construction luxury hotel property in Colombo has come under the scanner as part of a money laundering probe linked to a Gurugram-based realty company, Indian media reported today. 

The Indian Enforcement Directorate, a government agency tasked with investigating offences of money laundering and foreign exchange laws, said that the property is part of a collection of assets worth more than Indian Rupees 200 crore, linked to Krrish Realtech Private Limited, which is promoted by businessman Amit Katyal.

The ED, in a statement had said, that it has issued an order to provisionally attach the under-construction luxury hotel and leasehold rights over 4 acres of land in the “Colombo 1” area of Sri Lanka to the case, apart from land rights for about 2.82 acres of Vicinity Hotels Pvt. Ltd., in the name of Good Earth Business Park Pvt. Ltd. located at Sector-66 in Gurugram, the Press Trust of India reported. 

The money laundering case, it was also reported, stemmed from FIRs filed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police and Gurugram police against Katyal and his associates. 

It is alleged in the complaints against Krrish Realtech Pvt. Ltd. that it “defrauded” numerous investors and “illicitly” transferred hundreds of crores of rupees abroad “through a coordinated scheme involving cheating, deception and fraud”.

The agency said the company floated a project to provide residential plots in the centre of Gurugram, but after a lapse of more than 13 years no plots were provided to the buyers, despite collecting Indian rupees 503 crore from plot buyers. 

“Amit Katyal willingly siphoned off funds collected from various plot buyers and investors to a Sri Lankan company named The One Transworks Square (Pvt) Ltd. (formerly Krrish Transworks Colombo Pvt Ltd) which was developing a luxury real estate project in Sri Lanka,” the ED also stated.