The Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea filed by Pothys seeking to quash the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) order attaching land worth Rs 6.47 crore at T Nagar in Chennai.
However, The New Indian Express reported that the land was is in the heart of Kancheepuram town next to land owned by Pothys.
The land was bought from absconding don Sridhar Dhanapal’s wife and daughter. TNIE reported that the land was sold in two instalments, once in 2010 and February, 2016.
Sridhar, who is a history-sheeter, allegedly had real estate businesses worth more than Rs 500 crore.
On March 24, Dhanalakshmi, Sridhar’s daughter came down from UK and secretly sold the property to Pothys and the money was transferred to Kumari’s (Sridhar’s wife) bank account, reported TNIE. She later returned to UK after the Madras High Court quashed two lookout circulars issued by ED against her.
In September, the ED attached the two pieces of land which is now owned by Pothys. ED stated that Kumari was a housewife and had declared her income to the Income Tax department but it was not in proportion with the value of the properties owned by her.
Sridhar had not even declared his income to the IT department and the court stated that the properties sold by his wife and daughter were also bought from the proceeds of crimes committed by Sridhar.
However, Pothys stated that the property owned by them was not from proceeds of crime as defined by the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
About 26 FIRs has been filed in different police station against Sridhar Dhanapal and his associates for various offences including murder. On September 2, the Enforcement Directorate attached properties worth Rs 150 crore owned by Sridhar and his family members under PMLA, 2002, reported The Hindu.