The Enforcement Department (ED) has carried out search operations under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002 at 9 locations in Aurangabad, Pune and Akola of Maharashtra in respect of money laundering investigation into irregularities in tender allocation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) scheme at Aurangabad.
Based on FIR registered by Aurangabad Municipal Corporation against firms namely M/s Samarath Construction & JV, Indo Global Infrastructure Services, Jaguar Global Services and their respective partners, for forgery and formation of a cartel to illegally win the tender of the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation for constructing 40000 PMAY houses at Aurangabad, ED conducted the Investigation.
PMAY scheme was to be implemented at 7 plots/sites in Aurangabad. It was found that all the 3 e-tenders were uploaded from a single IP address. Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) is an initiative of the Government of India which aims at providing affordable housing to the urban poor by the year 2022. The scheme was first launched on 25 June 2015. The interest rate for the PMAY scheme starts at 6.50% p.a. and can be availed for a tenure of up to 20 years. The implementation period of the PMAY-Urban scheme has been extended until 31 December 2024.
The Indian Parliament passed the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 to stop money laundering and make provisions for the confiscation of property obtained via money laundering.
Based on the investigation by ED, 3 JV firms applied for the e-tender from the same IP address. The Tender was allotted to one M/s Samarath Construction & JV, but out of the performance Bank Guarantee of Rs 46.24 Crore they had deposited BG of only Rs 88.60 lacs. Also, Samarath Construction & JV subverted the due procedure by getting the extension of the initial tender for 19.22 hectares to 120 hectares without a fresh tender process.
It was found that the amount of government subsidy involved in this scam is to the tune of around Rs 1000 Crore. It was revealed that in the case of the 2 losing e-tender applicants, the major JV partners have completely denied their involvement in the tender process and are claiming forgery of their credentials by the L1 applicant. ED seized various incriminating documents including the note sheet of the tender file of Aurangabad Municipality from the applicant.
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