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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday carried out searches at three premises linked to businessman and former Minister of State for Haryana Gopal Goyal Kanda in connection with a Rs 248.46 crore alleged money laundering probe.
The search operation has been underway since early Thursday and is covering three premises of Kanda in Haryana's Gurugram. The premises being searched include his residence, farmhouse and office. The ED launched the searches under Section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), which grants extensive powers of search and seizure to the agency and authorised officers. The searchesare being conducted in connection with an ongoing investigation by ED's Gurugram unit in a large-scale real estate fraud by Vatika Limited, in which investors were induced to invest in commercial projects on assurances of timely possession, assured returns, lease rentals and execution of sale deeds. Officials said the four projects under investigation involved collection of approximately Rs 248.46 crore from 661 investors, without handing over possession or executing the promised sale deeds till date. The search operation is underway in close coordination with security and state police forces. Officials said the searches were initiated in this case based on the "financial trail and suspected diversion of home buyers funds." Officials further said that the "diverted funds were subsequently transferred to various companies linked with Kanda." Meanwhile, the ED is set to expand its field structure to 50 PMLA Zones and five dedicated FEMA Zones from January 1, 2027, as part of its newly approved cadre restructuring, while setting a target to reduce the lifecycle of investigations from the current four to five years to around one-and-a-half years. The 50 PMLA zones will handle cases related to money laundering under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, while the five dedicated FEMA Zones will focus on foreign exchange violations under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). The restructuring will increase the Directorate's sanctioned strength from 2,029 to 3,256 posts, a rise of around 60 per cent, and expand the number of functional units from 131 to 241. The five dedicated FEMA Zones will be established in Delhi, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, while the expanded PMLA network will strengthen the Directorate's field presence and investigation capacity across the country. The roadmap for the restructuring and the reduction in investigation timelines was discussed at the ED's 36th Quarterly Conference of Zonal Officers, held in Bengaluru on September 14-15. The conference was chaired by ED Director Rahul Navin and attended by senior officers from the headquarters and field formations. (ANI)
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