KD Singh was arrested in January under sections of the Money Laundering Act. (File)
New Delhi:
The CBI has registered an FIR against former Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member KD Singh for allegedly cheating 291 Kanpur-based investors on the pretext of providing them residential properties through his companies Alchemist Infra Realty Limited and Alchemist Township Limited, officials said.
The agency took over a 2019 FIR registered by the Uttar Pradesh Police in the case. It was sent to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and re-registered as per procedures, they said.
The case was registered on a complaint from Kanpur resident Pawan Mishra.
Mr Mishra had alleged that the companies had collected money in 2009 through a ponzi scheme for providing residential properties in Ferozepur in Punjab, and in case of default, it was told that money will be returned at 18 per cent per annum rate of interest.
He had also alleged that the companies had collected Rs 25,000 crore from 15 lakh investors across India, according to the FIR.
KD Singh was granted bail in the alleged money laundering case in which the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested him in January, they said.
His arrest by the ED took place on January 13, just over a month before assembly elections were to be announced in West Bengal, the officials said.
The CBI has alleged that 291 investors in Kanpur were given false promise of residential properties like plots, villas and apartments by Singh’s two companies. These promises have remained unfulfilled even after 10 years, they said.
The investors neither got the properties nor refunds of their investments, it alleged.
Mr Mishra’s complaint which is now part of the FIR alleged that money was not returned even after directives from the SEBI.