Sahiti Group fraud: How conman Sandeep Desai faked ED connections to extort money

Hyderabad: The sleuths of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the home of the alleged conman Sandeep Desai and seized multiple SIM cards and mobile phones used by him to entice and extort money from the accused in the multi-crore Sahiti Infrastructure fraud case.

What is the Sahiti Infra fraud case?

The ED Hyderabad office, currently probing the Sahiti Infrastructure fraud case, seized gold worth Rs 6.15 crore from the Hyderabad-based realtors CSK Realtors, Singh Mansions, Suresh Kr Agarwal and Rakshit Agarwal. These raids were regarding the alleged Sahiti Group fraud involving Rs 842 crore.

The Telangana Police booked Sahiti Infratec Ventures India Pvt. Ltd (SIVIPL) MD B Lakshminarayan and others based on complaints of investors/buyers of different projects undertaken by SIVIPL and other group entities. SIVIPL, B Lakshminarayana and others collected huge amounts from prospective buyers for the construction of residential premises but failed to deliver flats or refund their money, thus cheating them of their hard-earned savings.

The ED investigation revealed that SIVIPL did not have the necessary statutory permissions.

Further, there was no ESCROW account for the project and the funds received from investors were deposited in various bank accounts and were collected in cash.

Rs 842.15 crore generated by duping homebuyers

The investigation revealed that SIVIPL generated Proceeds of Crime (POC) to the tune of Rs 842.15 crore by taking advance from homebuyers on the pretext of the sale of inventory in projects launched by Sahiti Group.

Out of this, Rs 216.91 crore was collected from homebuyers in cash, which never made it to the books of accounts and was concealed by the promoters/directors of SIVIPL for their personal use. Proceeds of Crime were siphoned off by diverting the funds of SIVIPL to related as well as unrelated entities/persons by executing bogus banking transactions without any genuine business.

During the investigation, it was found that the companies of Suresh Kr Agarwal and Rakshit Agarwal entered into high-value transactions valued at more than Rs 20 crore with SIVIPL and engaged in the sale and purchase of properties. Suresh Kr Agarwal and Rakshit remained evasive, did not appear in response to a summons and did not submit requisite documents thereby not cooperating in the ongoing investigation.

Modus operandi of Sandeep Desai

Sandeep Desai contacted Suresh Kumar Agarwal, managing director of CSK Realtors and tried to extort money from him in the name of ED officers. He used three mobile numbers to contact Suresh Kumar Agarwal through WhatsApp and faked his association with the ED officers.

He convinced Suresh Kumar Agarwal to meet him at a 5-star hotel in Hyderabad and during the meeting introduced himself as ‘Rakesh’, a cousin/friend of an ED officer. The conman demanded a hefty sum from Suresh Kumar Agarwal and offered to help him in the ongoing PMLA investigation against CSK Realtors through his contact with ED officers.

Using the information received regarding Sandeep's modus operandi, Suresh Kumar Agarwal was encouraged by the ED officers to file a written complaint. Based on the complaint, the action was initiated by the ED officers and the conman was identified through CCTV footage and surveillance. Subsequently, his whereabouts were found.

ED searched his residence from where various SIM cards and mobile phones used by him were seized. In his statement recorded during the investigation, Sandeep Desai admitted that he tried to extort money from Suresh Kr Agarwal in the name of ED officers by falsely projecting his association with them.