Ahmedabad, Jan 8 (NationPress) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached a resort and various properties totaling approximately Rs 4.92 crore linked to a former field supervisor of the Gujarat Land Development Corporation in the Anand district of Gujarat, as part of an investigation into allegations of unlawful asset possession, an official confirmed on Thursday.

The ED's Ahmedabad Zonal Office reported that the properties, worth Rs 4.92 crore, belonging to Dhirubhai Bababhai Sharma, were attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

The attached assets include a commercial shop, a residential house, agricultural land, and the Jalashay resort located in Nadiad, Gujarat.

The investigation was initiated following an FIR lodged by the Anti-Corruption Bureau Police Station in Anand district against Sharma, under Sections 13(1)(b) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, citing possession of disproportionate assets worth Rs 8.04 crore (approximately 354.56 percent) beyond his known income sources from April 1, 2006, to March 31, 2018.

Sharma, along with his family members and their company Jalashray Resort Private Limited, had collectively taken both secured and unsecured loans. The ED found that loan repayments were predominantly made through cash deposits across various bank accounts.

Instead of utilizing standard banking methods, substantial cash amounts were deposited into their accounts and subsequently transferred to Krishna Finance for loan repayments, implicating a classic money laundering strategy where illicit funds were integrated into the banking system via cash deposits and later used to settle financial obligations, obscuring their origins.

Moreover, some repayments were channeled through multiple accounts, further complicating the financial trail and raising suspicions of fund layering to disguise the true source of the money, the ED noted.

The Jalashray Resort was founded on February 1, 2012, by Sharma's son and wife on a 52 Guntha plot purchased in 2007 for Rs 5.40 lakh.

The resort initially received a secured loan of Rs 5.50 crore and later augmented its financing with a Rs 7.85 crore loan in 2018, according to an ED statement.

Additionally, Sharma and his family secured Rs 1.19 crore in unsecured loans between 2015 and 2020 for the development of the resort.

The resort's development was funded through a mix of loans, cash deposits in bank accounts, and transfers from various sources, including funds from Preya Services, an entity with a 50 percent stake held by Sharma's daughter-in-law.

Sharma owned LIC and Max Life insurance policies for himself and family members, making premium payments in cash, with maturation amounts subsequently transferred to his personal savings account.