ED Attaches Rs.300 crore Worth of Land from Real Estate Firm M3M

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached immovable properties spanning 88 acres and valued at approximately ₹300 crore, belonging to the real estate developer M3M India Infrastructure Private Ltd, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

An ED statement revealed that the attached properties are land parcels in Basharia village, Harsaru tehsil, Gurugram.

The investigation began based on a 2019 CBI FIR against former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the then Director of Town and Country Planning, and 15 real estate companies, including RS Infrastructure Pvt Ltd. However, Hooda and the Director were not charged in the CBI’s 2021 Panchkula court chargesheet.

The case entailed deceiving multiple landowners, the general public, and the state of Haryana by releasing a notice under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act and later under Section 6 of the Act to acquire the lands of the landowners, forcing them to sell at a price lower than the market value to the developer companies.

Furthermore, they deceitfully and unfairly acquired Letter of Intents/licenses for the notified land, resulting in losses for the landowners, the public, and the Haryana government, while illicitly benefiting themselves.

The ED investigation found that RS Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, owned by M3M Group promoters Basant Bansal and Roop Bansal, colluded with those named in the FIR to unlawfully obtain licenses for a 10.35-acre commercial colony by falsely claiming "extreme hardship." The promoters failed to develop the commercial colony as required by the licenses.

The ED also revealed that RS Infrastructure later sold the company’s shares and assets, including the licensed land, for a substantial ₹726 crore to Lowe Realty Private Limited, an affiliate of the Religare Group.

This fraudulent scheme to illegally obtain the licenses generated ₹300 crore in proceeds of crime, which were then transferred from RS Infrastructure to the promoters’ personal bank accounts and those of their family members, and used for operational and business expenses of M/s M3M Group companies.