New Delhi [India], August 6 (HBTV): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached shares worth INR 127.33 crore in two of Haryana's Panchkula-based hospitals—Alchemist Hospital and Ojas Hospital—owned by Karan Deep Singh, son of former Rajya Sabha MP Kanwar Deep Singh, as part of an ongoing money laundering investigation, the agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

According to the statement, the ED’s Delhi Zonal Office carried out the attachment under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The action is part of a broader investigation into money laundering involving the Alchemist Group, its directors, promoters, and associated entities, in connection with large-scale fraud and misappropriation of public funds.

The ED initiated its investigation based on a First Information Report (FIR) first registered by the Kolkata Police and subsequently taken up by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Alchemist Township Pvt Ltd, Alchemist Infra Realty Pvt Ltd, and promoters and directors of the Alchemist Group, including Kanwar Deep Singh.

The agency stated that the case pertains to a ‘large-scale criminal conspiracy to defraud investors by illegally raising funds through fraudulent Collective Investment Schemes (CIS), offering unusually high returns, and/or making false promises of allotting plots, flats, and villas’.

Through these deceptive investment schemes, Alchemist Holdings Ltd and Alchemist Township India Ltd allegedly collected approximately INR 1,848 crore from unsuspecting investors and later misappropriated the funds for unauthorised purposes.

The ED's investigation revealed that the misappropriated funds were ‘systematically layered through complex financial transactions involving group entities of the Alchemist Group, with the intent to conceal the illicit origin of the funds’. These proceeds were ultimately used to acquire shares and finance the construction of Alchemist Hospital and Ojas Hospital. The transactions were structured to project these assets as legitimate and disguise the proceeds of crime.

The ED further said that ‘the shares of Alchemist Hospital and Ojas Hospital are held to the extent of 40.94 per cent and 37.24 per cent, respectively, by Sorus Agritech Pvt Ltd, a company beneficially owned by Karan Deep Singh, son of Kanwar Deep Singh’.

In connection with the case, Kanwar Deep Singh was arrested by the ED on January 12, 2021. A prosecution complaint was filed before the Special Court (PMLA) in New Delhi on March 2, 2021, followed by a supplementary prosecution complaint on July 19, 2024.

So far, the ED has provisionally attached movable and immovable properties worth INR 238.42 crore through five separate provisional attachment orders.

(ANI)