Mumbai: The Amboli police have booked three individuals for allegedly embezzling Rs 1.41 crore from Hari Media Network Private Limited through a series of fake projects and forged documents. The accused are Rishbh Sureka, a former senior manager–client servicing (influencer marketing) at the company, Yash Nagarkoti, CEO of Hooray Movies, and Ashay Shastri.

Sureka is accused of forging actress Athiya Shetty’s signature and creating a fake email ID in the name of actor Arshad Warsi to execute the fraud. Hari Media Network, which provides advertising and marketing services, has its head office in Haryana and a branch in Andheri West, Mumbai, opposite Yash Raj Films. Sureka joined in July 2023 and was authorised to handle influencer branding, project coordination, and communications with the finance team and CEO.

Soon after joining, Sureka received an interest-free loan of Rs 15 lakh from the company for his mother’s medical treatment. The fraud came to light through multiple fake invoices. In August 2024, Sureka claimed a Havells project featuring actress Dia Mirza required Rs31 lakh for Hooray Movies, which was approved. He allegedly told Nagarkoti the payment would be Rs 62 lakh.

After completion, Nagarkoti withheld the video and demanded the extra amount, citing a forged email from Sureka. The company paid an additional Rs 19 lakh to release the video. Investigations revealed Sureka, Nagarkoti, and Shastri conspired to submit forged bills in the names of brands like Havells, Mahindra Lifespaces, Realme Number Series, and Birla Estates. These fake claims totalled over Rs 52 lakh, transferred to Sureka’s personal account.

In January 2024, Sureka misused the company’s email to approach Matrix Entertainment, Athiya Shetty’s talent managers, and independently secured a Rs40 lakh advertisement with Khanna Jewellers. He forged Shetty’s signature on a fake agreement, collected Rs15 lakh from the jeweller, and did not pass it to Matrix. He also created a fake Zomato invoice involving Shetty and cricketer KL Rahul.

Lucknow, Jan 3: In fresh action against real estate player, the Amrapali Group, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) provisionally attached immovable properties worth Rs 99.26 crore for fraudulently diverting and misappropriating homebuyers’ funds, an official said on Saturday.

The immovable properties attached under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 include the office and factory land and building of Mauria Udyog Ltd., which is one of the entities of the Sureka Group, whose promoters are Navneet Sureka and Akhil Sureka.

The aggregate fair market value of the seized office and factory land and building was Rs. 99.26 crore as on December 30, 2016, the ED said in a statement.

The ED has now passed a total of six Provisional Attachment Orders, including the present one, under Section 5(1) of the PMLA, 2002, attaching properties having a cumulative value of Rs 303.08 crore.

The ED, Lucknow Zonal Office, initiated the investigation on the basis of multiple FIRs registered at different Police Stations in Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, and EOW, Delhi Police, and also pursuant to a Supreme Court order.

On July 23, 2019, the Supreme Court passed the order in Bikram Chatterji versus Union of India matter that was related to petitions filed by aggrieved homebuyers.

The allegations were that the Amrapali Group collected huge sums of money from homebuyers, failed to deliver possession of flats within the stipulated time, and fraudulently diverted and misappropriated the homebuyers’ funds by adopting a criminal conspiracy involving bogus transactions, forgery and cheating.

The ED investigation revealed that the accused persons, their associates and promoters — namely Anil Kumar Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar, Directors of the Amrapali Group — in connivance with Navneet Sureka and Akhil Sureka, Directors of Mauria Udyog and Jotindra Steel and Tubes Ltd, diverted homebuyers’ funds through non-genuine and fraudulent transactions under the guise of procurement of TMT bars and construction material.

The funds were layered through a complex web of shell entities and bogus suppliers, withdrawn substantially in cash and irreversibly dissipated, thereby generating and laundering the Proceeds of Crime (POC), the ED said.

It has been established that an amount of Rs110.39 crore was diverted to Mauria Udyog, representing POC generated from the money collected from Amrapali homebuyers.

As the original POC were dissipated and no longer available for direct attachment, the ED has attached the immovable properties of Mauria Udyog on the principle of “value thereof” under the PMLA, 2002, in order to secure the POC.

Earlier, the ED had arrested Anil Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar, Directors of the Amrapali Group; Anil Mittal, Statutory Auditor of the Amrapali Group; and Chander Prakash Wadhwa, CFO of the Amrapali Group.

So far, the ED has filed six Prosecution Complaints in this case, arraigning 33 individuals and entities as accused.

Thane: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested an assistant police inspector (API) for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 20,000 from a man for helping him and his family members in a case in Maharashtra’s Thane district, an official said on Saturday.

Based on a complaint, API Sanjay Dhondiram Bidgar (48) of Ulhasnagar police station was caught red-handed while accepting the bribe amount on Friday, the official said.

He said that a case had been registered at the Ulhasnagar police station against the complainant, his son, and wife, and the accused officer allegedly demanded Rs 20,000 in exchange for not arresting the trio and for helping them in the case.

Unwilling to pay the bribe, the complainant approached the ACB in Thane, and after a preliminary verification, a trap was laid.

A case has been registered against Bidgar under the Prevention of Corruption Act, and a further probe is underway, the official said.