Ripping the lid off a scam involving the sale of same flats to multiple buyers without their knowledge, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested a prominent builder in Navi Mumbai in a Rs  50 crore alleged money laundering case.

A day after it arrested Monarch Universal Group’s Director Gopal Amarlal Thakur under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the ED on Friday produced him before a special PMLA court which remanded him to its custody till July 8. The ED initiated investigations against M/s Monarch Universal Group (MUG) after the Maharashtra police lodged FIRs and filed charge-sheets against the ground under the provisions of Indian Penal Code (IPC) for alleged cheating and defrauding genuine flat owners.

M/s MUG allegedly collected money from the flat buyers but did not register the flats in their names after sufficient time lapse.

During its investigations, the ED found that M/s MUG sold flats to multiple persons. They took loans from Non-Banking Financial Companies by the mortgaging the same flats without the knowledge of the customers who booked the already sold flats.

The investigations also revealed that M/s MUG allegedly diverted funds from the project accounts to different entities/individuals, thus siphoning off the funds.

The MUG — run by Thakur, his brother Hasmukh and others — has been engaged in several building construction projects in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane.

The group has been facing several other cases and litigation pertaining to alleged cheating and fraudulent practices against flat buyers, including some NRIs.

The ED said that further investigations to track the funds trail and the proceeds of the crime and also the involvement of others in the scam, was underway.