ED raids Heera Group MD Shaikh Nowhera’s properties in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has raided properties of ‘Heera Gold Scam’ accused Shaikh Nowhera, managing director of Heera Group of companies, at five different places in Hyderabad on Saturday, August 3. ED officials seized Rs 90 lakh, in addition to property documents worth crores.

Last year, the ED had provisionally attached 24 immovable properties of Nowhera and Heera Group of companies in Hyderabad worth Rs. 33.06 crore under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act of 2002, in a case related to defrauding people to the tune of hundreds of crores.

The ED had earlier provisionally attached properties to the tune of Rs 367 crore allegedly acquired out of proceeds of the crime by Nowhera’s Heera Group of companies, M/s SA Builders & Developers, a Hyderabad based firm, and M/s Neelanchal Technocrats Pvt Ltd, a Bangalore-based company. Total attachment in the ED case stood at Rs 400.06 crore.

Shaikh Nowhera was being investigated by the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai police, Serious Fraud Investigation office (SFIO), and presently the ED, in connection with a gold ponzi scheme where she has allegedly collected around Rs 500 crore or more, from around two lakh investors.

The Heera Group’s investors spread around Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and also the Gulf countries where its offices are located. Nowhera has allegedly promised her investors returns of 32-42% on their investments in a ponzi scheme.

As her companies started defaulting on the payments, several cases were filed by various agencies including the ED.