Real estate tycoon Niranjan Hiranandani appears before ED in FEMA violation case

Real estate tycoon Niranjan Hiranandani on Monday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act) violation probe.  Last month, the ED officials conducted a search operation at premises linked to Niranjan Hiranandani and his son Darshan Hiranandani in Mumbai and a few other places. 

Following the search operations, summons were issued to Niranjan Hiranandani and Darshan Hiranandani to appear before ED officials to record their statements. 

As per the information available, Niranjan Hiranandani and his family members were the beneficiaries of an offshore trust, which had allegedly accumulated assets of more than $60 million. The group was also named in the Pandora Papers. Hiranandanis had set up at least 25 companies and a Trust in the British Virgin Islands between 2006 and 2008, an official said.
 
They have allegedly routed investments of more than Rs 400 crores in the form of FDIs (Foreign Direct Investment) received in group companies having real estate projects in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. The utilisation of the amount was not as per the prescribed government guidelines, the agency official said.  

Also, the official said one of the group entities, which received FDI, did not repay loans taken from a consortium of banks and was declared NPA. Interestingly, the incomplete project was then taken over by another Hiranandani group entity in DRT (Debt Recovery Tribunal) proceedings.