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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached 130 movable and immovable assets worth Rs 1,023.85 crore in India and Singapore as part of its money laundering probe into alleged large-scale illegal iron ore mining in Goa involving the Salgaocar Group and its associates, collectively referred to as the AVS Group.
According to the ED, the attached assets include 99 immovable properties in India valued at Rs 459.10 crore, 31 immovable properties in Singapore worth Rs 471.32 crore, and equity shares in Indian companies valued at Rs 93.42 crore. The assets are held in the names of the Estate of late Anil Vassudeva Salgaocar, represented through its administratrix Lakshmi Anil Salgaocar, as well as several group-linked entities, including Salgaocar Mining Industries Pvt Ltd, Shantilal Khushaldas and Brothers Pvt Ltd, S Kantilal and Co Pvt Ltd, Salitho Ores Pvt Ltd, Vertex Newton Projects Pvt Ltd and Subarnarekha Port Pvt Ltd. In a statement, the ED said, "The attached assets comprise 99 immovable properties situated in India worth Rs 459.10 crore, 31 immovable properties situated in Singapore worth Rs 471.32 crore and equity shares in Indian companies valued at Rs 93.42 crore." The attachment was carried out by the ED's Panaji Zonal Office under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, pursuant to an attachment order dated June 19. The agency said its investigation was initiated on the basis of an FIR registered by the Goa Crime Branch CID for offences under the Indian Penal Code, the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act. Referring to earlier court rulings, the ED noted that the Supreme Court, in judgments dated April 21, 2014 and February 7, 2018, held that mining activities undertaken in Goa after November 22, 2007, until the grant of fresh mining leases, were illegal and without lawful authority. According to the agency, the AVS Group operated ten mining leases between 2007 and 2012 and generated proceeds of crime amounting to Rs 2,492.95 crore through the illegal extraction, sale and export of iron ore. "The illegally mined ore was exported at grossly undervalued prices to shell entities incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, which acted as mere paper intermediaries and resold the ore to China," the ED alleged. The agency further claimed that the arrangement generated offshore trade profits of approximately Rs 2,744.89 crore, taking the total proceeds of crime to Rs 5,237.84 crore. "These funds were layered through BVI and Singapore-based SPVs, utilised to acquire substantial movable and immovable assets abroad, and partly routed back into India in the guise of share capital," the ED said. (ANI)
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