The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Sunday said that it has arrested Anil Vailaparampil Abraham, Executive Director of Sahara Group’s Chairman Core Management (CCM) Office, and Jitendra Prasad Verma, a long-time associate and property broker of the Sahara Group, from Kolkata in a case of money laundering involving Sahara India and its group entities.

According to ED officials, Abraham played a “key role” in coordinating and facilitating the sale of Sahara Group properties, many of which involved substantial unaccounted cash components that were siphoned off.

“Verma was actively involved in executing several of these property transactions and knowingly assisted in routing large cash proceeds generated from these sale transactions, thereby contributing to the concealment and dissipation of Proceeds of Crime (POC),” the ED official stated.

According to the ED, “incriminating documents” were recovered during the search operations. “Such evidence suggested that the properties of the Sahara Group were being disposed of one by one in a clandestine manner. It was also found from the various digital evidence that these two persons — Abraham and Verma — had played a key role in the disposal of such properties and assisting the promoters of Sahara Group in siphoning off the funds,” said the official, adding the promoters were found to be involved while remaining outside India. Abraham and Verma were produced before a court on Saturday and sent to ED custody till July 14.

The ED began its probe after over 500 FIRs were registered against various Sahara Group entities, with more than 300 involving scheduled offences under the PMLA, alleging large-scale cheating of depositors through forced redeposits and denial of maturity payments. The ED found that Sahara Group was operating a Ponzi scheme through entities like HICCSL, SCCSL, SUMCS, SMCSL, SICCL, SIRECL, SHICL, and others by luring depositors and agents with promises of high returns and commissions. “Despite financial incapacity, the group continued to collect fresh deposits, part of which was siphoned off for benami assets and personal expenses,” the ED said.