The Enforcement Directorate has attached shares worth Rs. 127.33 crore in two hospitals held by Karan Deep Singh, son of the former Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP K.D. Singh.
The two hospitals – Alchemist and Ojas – are located in Haryana’s Panchkula.
The Kolkata Police and later the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed FIRs against the Alchemist Township Pvt Ltd and Alchemist Infra Realty and the promoters of the Alchemist Group that included the former MP.
According to the central probe agency’s allegations, the two companies had illegally raised Rs. 1,848crore promising high returns, or plots, flats and villas to unsuspecting investors. The ED started the probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. K.D. Singh was arrested on January 12, 2001.
Investigating the money trail, the ED found part of the funds raised through these schemes, through complex financial transactions involving the group entities of the Alchemist Group, were allegedly used for buying the shares and construction of the two hospitals.
“The transactions were deliberately structured to project these assets as legitimate, thereby disguising the proceeds of crime,” the ED said in a statement.
Sorus Agritech, a company "beneficially owned" by Karan Deep Singh, held 40.94 per cent of the shares in Alchemist Hospital and 37.24 per cent in Ojas Hospital.
The ED has so far attached movable and immovable properties worth Rs. 238.42crore through five separate attachment orders.
Singh was first elected to the Rajya Sabha by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and within months switched to the Trinamool Congress. Singh is no longer associated with the party.
