New Delhi, Nov 9 (IANS): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday said that they conducted search operations at the premises of Sallarpuria Sattva Group and freezed assets in the form of bank balances of Rs 49.99 crore lying in 316 bank accounts.

The ED has also seized Rs 29 lakh in cash and foreign currencies (of multiple countries) for which value is being calculated.

The official said that the searches were conducted in connection with an ongoing investigation into the money laundering by Heera Group through layering and transferring the crime proceeds.

The ED had learnt in the investigation that Rs 41 crore of crime proceeds were layered and transferred to a Bengaluru-based company, Neelanchal Technocrats Pvt Ltd (part of Sallarpuria Sattva Group) and to multiple other shell entities registered in Kolkata, Shillong under the instructions of directors of Sallarpuria Sattva Group.

"Sallarpuria Sattva group is controlled by Bijay Kumar Aggarwal, and its group Directors Pradeep Dhandhania and Ashwin Sancheti negotiated real estate deal for a land parcel at Tolichowki, Hyderabad and instructed for transferring of crime proceeds to shell entities. Various other shell entities were identified during the search. It was detected during the search that these funds were re-routed back into the Sallarpuria Sattva Group companies through their group NBFC registered in Kolkata," the official said.

The official said that directors of Sallarpuria group could not explain the business rationale of these transactions and reasons for layering the proceeds of crime through shell entities of Kolkata and Shillong.

A search by the ED helped to unearth the crime proceeds transferred through multiple layers and to gather evidence of money laundering.

Further investigation in the case was on.