New Delhi, April 9 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached various immovable and movable properties, valued at Rs 25.20 crore, in the form of bank balances and shares belonging to Methuku Ravinder, his family members, close aides and associates under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, in the Sun Parivar Ponzi scheme case.

According to officials, the financial probe agency had initiated an investigation on the basis of various FIRs registered by the Telangana Police under various sections of the IPC and the Andhra Pradesh Protection of Depositors of Financial Establishments Act, 1999 (APPDFEA) against Ravinder and his close associates for cheating general public/gullible investors in the garb of offering high returns on investments made in Sun Pariwar Group of companies and Sun Mutually Aided Thrift and Credit Co-operative Society Ltd.

The ED has alleged that Ravinder and his associates cheated and defrauded more than 10,000 people and collected around Rs 158 crore from them which are the proceeds of crime in this case.

"The probe revealed that Ravinder and his associates floated various schemes for duping investors by offering returns of up to 100 per cent per year on investments and for this purpose, they started several companies under the umbrella of Sun Pariwar Group of companies viz. Methuku Chit Fund Pvt. Ltd, Methuku Ventures Ltd., Metsun Nidhi Ltd., Methuku Herbal Limited, Methuku Medical and Herbal Foundation, etc," the ED said in a statement.

The agency further stated that the collected money was siphoned off to purchase various movable and immovable properties in the name of Ravinder and his family members & associates.

"ED investigation also revealed that after Ravinder was released on bail in the Telangana Police case, he established new entities viz. Pudami Agro Farm Lands, Pudami Infra Projects (India) Ltd., and M/s Divine Infra Developers in the names of his close associates and again launched new Ponzi schemes wherein the funds collected were utilised to acquire properties," it said.

/IANS