Heera boss alleges hounding by ED, cops

Hyderabad: Heera Gold Group Managing Director Nowhera Shaik on Wednesday alleged that Enforcement Directorate officials and police personnel are unnecessarily harassing her and company officials.

Speaking to the media at ED office in Basheerbagh here, she alleged that till date the police did not collect any proofs against her on the alleged accusations.

On the other hand, the ED officials took her into custody for seven days till May 21 to quiz her in the case. She claimed that during the custody process she suddenly fell on the road before boarding the vehicle in the premises of Chanchalguda Jail.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials released a press note regarding the custody of Nowhera Shaikh. According to the press release, the police arrested Nowhera, Molly Thomas and Biju Thomas under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 in a fraudulent money circulation scheme of Heera Group.

The accused were produced before the Metropolitan Session Judge, Hyderabad and after hearing the petition, the court granted seven days Enforcement custody to all the accused from Wednesday onwards.

The ED is questioning the accused persons in connection with their different companies, bank accounts and multiple properties identified across the country. Further investigations are under progress.

Earlier, the ED has initiated investigations under PMLA on the basis of FIRs registered by Telangana Police against Nowhera, Molly Thomas and Biju Thomas and Heera Group of companies.

Heera Group fraudulently collected investments from lakhs of victims on the promise of providing very high returns of approximately 36 per cent by indulging in gold trading and other such schemes. The scheme was unsustainable and the group has defaulted in the repayment of the principal amount and promised returns to its investors.

The accused were fraudulently running a money circulation scheme. Multiple FIRs have been registered by the aggrieved depositors across the country against Shaik and others.

During the course of investigation, it was revealed that the accused persons and their group companies have collected more than Rs 3,000 crore from 1.72 lakh investors across India on the pretext of investment.

Deposits were also collected from victims in Hyderabad and other places in Telangana, many States in India including Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and also from NRIs in UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries.

Investigations revealed that, the group companies do not have any substantial actual business activity by which they can earn the promised profits or returns.

They have diverted the collected amounts to their personal accounts through their company bank accounts and benamis for wrongful gain and amassed huge movable and immovable properties by utilising the diverted funds.

Nowhera opened 24 entities under Heera Group and 182 bank accounts were opened in different banks at different parts of the countries in the name of these 24 entities.

Further, 10 bank accounts were also opened in foreign countries such as UAE, Saudi Arabia and others.