Based on an FIR filed by Central Crime Branch-I, Chennai under various IPC sections, the Directorate of Enforcement began an investigation into allegations that the Kallal Group and its Directors/founts had defrauded the complainant (Gaurav Chachra, Director of M/s Pettigo Commercio Internacional Lda, a subsidiary of the UK-based Lyca Group with significant presence in India in the form of Lyca Productions, Lyca Hotels, etc.) 114.37 Crore had been stolen from them by the Kallal Group, which included its founders Saravanan Palaniappan, Vijaykumaran, Aravinth Raj, and Vijay Ananth, as well as Mrs Lakshmi Muthuraman and Mrs Preetha Vijayananth.
The Lyca organisation provided further investments and loans to the accused organisation and its businesses without doing any due diligence or providing any justification, according to investigations done by the ED, which found that the scam really included a sum of Rs. 300 crores. This led to searches at both the accused and complainants’ related entities on April 27 and May 16, 2023, which turned up a number of incriminating items, including digital evidence, documents, properties, suspicious cash transactions, and hawala transactions, which are still being looked into by the ED.
Meanwhile, on May 25, 2023, the ED temporarily attached several immovable properties located throughout Tamil Nadu, valued at a total of Rs. 36.3 crores. Additionally, it temporarily attached Rs. 34.7 lahks from the M/s Udayanidhi Stalin Foundation’s bank account, as it had received a total of Rs. 1 crore in proceeds of crime. The trustees of the aforementioned organisation were supposed to justify the above receipt from the parties engaged in the lawsuit, but they never did.
Thus, the overall proceeds of crime in the aforementioned case come to roughly 300 crores, of which moveable property in the form of a bank account with a balance of 34.7 lakh rupees and immovable property valued at 36.3 crore rupees have been attached. The probe is being expanded upon.
