ED searches Ambience owners’ homes, offices

nNEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday raided the residence and office premises of the owners of Delhibased realty firm Ambience Group, which runs the Ambience malls in the National Capital Region and the five-star Leela Ambience Convention Hotel in east Delhi in connection with a money laundering case, the agency said in a statement.

The agency said that seven premises, including the office of M/s Aman Hospitality Pvt Ltd (AHPL), other companies of the Ambience Group and the residential premises of its Chairman Raj Singh Gehlot, directors Dayanand Singh and Mohan Singh Gehlot and their associates were searched.

ED recovered Indian currency worth ₹16 lakh and foreign currency equivalent to around ₹ 24 lakh from the chairperson’s residence apart from “incriminating documents” and “digital evidence.”

The agency had initiated a probe under money laundering on the basis of a Jammu Anticorruption Bureau (ACB) case in August 2019 against AHPL and its directors for money laundering in the construction and development of the Leela Ambience Convention Hotel.

“Investigation under PMLA [Prevention of Money Laundering Act] revealed that a huge part of loan amount of more than ₹800 crore, which was sanctioned by a consortium of banks for the hotel project, was siphoned off by AHPL and Raj Singh Gehlot and his associates through a web of companies owned/controlled by them. A substantial part of the loan money was transferred by AHPL to several companies and individuals on the pretext of payment of running bills and advance for supply of material/ work executed”, ED said in a statement on Friday.

When contacted, Raj Singh Gehlot’s son Aman Gehlot, who runs AHPL, refused to comment.