In connection with a FEMA Violation case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned billionaire businessman Niranjan Hiranandani, the promoter of the well-known real estate firm Hiranandani Group, located in Mumbai, for about eleven hours. An ED official stated that they have recorded the statement of Niranjan Hiranandani.
Hiranandani arrived at ED's office in south Mumbai's Ballard Pier at around 11.30 am and left the spot at around 10:15 pm. Niranjan Hiranandani said that they were cooperating with the agency and answered all of their questions. It's a 16-year-old case. The agency asked several questions that had been asked before, and we responded to them, said Niranjan Hiranandani, while he was leaving the agency's office.
Niranjan and his son Darshan, who has been living in Dubai for the past few years, were called by the agency. Consequently, Hiranandani arrived at the ED's Ballard Pier office in the afternoon and spent hours being questioned by agency representatives.
The agency said that the group businesses had received over INR 400 crore for housing projects under the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) channel, but the suspected use of the funds in these projects did not follow the government's stipulated rules.
Niranjan Hiranandani, his son Darshan Hiranandani, who is reportedly living in Dubai, and his group entities are being investigated by the agency under the FEMA.
The agency searched three locations in Mumbai last month: the corporate and registered offices of the Group entities, as well as the co-founder Niranjan Hiranandani's south Mumbai home and the site office of a group housing project in Panvel.
The ED is investigating the Hiranandanis for allegedly receiving over INR 400 crore in foreign direct investments (FDI) through group firms that own real estate properties in Panvel, Chennai. Media reports claim that an investigation found the Group had reportedly acquired FDI funding for its two planned housing projects in Chennai and Panvel, but there had been subsequent infractions regarding the use of this money.
According to media reports, money purportedly used for these initiatives was not used in accordance with official requirements. After failing to repay loans from a group of banks, one of the group firms that had received FDI was designated as a non-performing asset. Remarkably, in later Debt Resolution Tribunal hearings, another Hiranandani group entity took over the completed project.
According to the agency's data, Niranjan Hiranandani and his relatives were purportedly the recipients of an offshore trust that had amassed assets worth over USD 60 million. The Pandora Papers had previously listed the group. A further finding of the ED investigation was that, between 2006 and 2008, the Hiranandanis are said to have established a Trust and at least 25 companies in the British Virgin Islands.
The Hiranandani Group's official spokesperson said that the corporate representative will continue to be completely cooperative in supplying the necessary paperwork, as they have done several times in the past, and will show up when necessary.
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