Hyderabad: The Supreme Court agreed to lift the Enforcement Directorates’s (ED) attachment of the properties of the high-profile Heera Group on Friday.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday said it has attached immovable and movable assets worth Rs 78.63 crore in connection with an investment fraud case in which one Nowhera Sheikh and others have been named as accused.
Heera Group has submitted details worth Rs 641 crores in the SC for securing the interest of investors against claims aggregating about Rs 400 crores.
On the historical judgment that came in the first week of December, the CEO of Heera Group, Dr Nowhera Shaik said, “it is nothing but pure Heera and we are finally vindicated.”
Earlier on March 24, 2022, the Supreme Court order had noted, “the petitioners again state that they have no objection as long as any of the properties numbering 87 attached are sold in a transparent manner and as per a reasonable market price and they will also assist the SFIO in that process.”
The SFIO (Serious Fraud Investigation Office) has been assigned to deal with all existing and new warrants issued by the lower court in the Heera Group case which is a big relief for CEO Nowhera Shaik & Heera group.
The Division Bench of SC in its order on 10 Nov said, “FSL lab is concerned, the story is almost 4 years old but still the report has not come as yet. SFIO once again takes up the issue of ensuring that finality is put to the issue of the FSL report as according to the petitioners (SFIO) some of the challenges expressed by the tax consultant also arise from the seizure of the computers and the same lying with the FSL lab.”
Justice SK Kaul had observed, “two years is a long time to find evidence. Obviously, our sympathies will then lie with the Heera group”.
Nowhera Shaik assured her investors that their claims would be met sooner. The single property out of 87 is sufficient to meet all the claims since the single properties’ identification and valuation were Rs 800 crore.
Earlier, the Division bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice S.K. Kaul ordered, ” fix 30th November 2022 as the last date for receiving any claims where after it will be presumed that the claims have been abandoned/do not exist.”
Nothing but the Trust of my investors is my real Heera, says CEO Nowhera Shaik.
Reiterating that the Heera Group follows an interest-free business model, Nowhera Shaik elaborated that the move to offer the prime assets in Tolichowki, Hyderabad is to retain the trust and confidence of its investors.
ED versus Heera Group history
Prior to this, the ED had provisionally attached properties worth Rs 300 crore in the same case.
In 2018, the ED registered a money laundering case against Nowhera Sheikh and others who had collected more than Rs 5,000 crore from the public as an investment against the false promise of an unreasonably high 36 per cent annual return on investment but failed to repay even the principal amounts. Thus, they duped thousands of innocent investors.
The ED learnt that Sheik and her Heera Group of companies had transferred Rs 148 crore to one SA Builders and Developers for purchasing properties situated at Tolichowki, Hyderabad but properties only worth Rs 70 crore were actually registered which were earlier attached in the hands of Heera Group.
The remaining funds of Rs 78 crore which were part of crime proceeds were found to be parked with the SA Builders and Developers.
The ED also learnt that SA Builders and Developers had transferred Rs 41 crore out of above Rs 78 crore to Neelanchal Technocrats Pvt. Ltd and 4 other shell entities in Kolkata and Shillong. All these funds were ultimately routed back to the Sallarpuria Sattva group as loans.
The ED had in November conducted searches at the office of the Sallarpuria Sattva group in Bangalore and unearthed the above money trail and subsequently attached immovable properties and bank balances of Rs 78 crore as equivalent value of the crime proceeds.
Follow on Twitter | Edited by Masrath Fatima | 
