New Delhi, May 12 (IANS): The ED on Friday said that it recently conducted searches at six premises including five residential premises in Indore and the premise of a shell entity based in Mumbai in a money laundering case lodged against businessman Deepak Jain Madda and others.

During the searches, cash amount of Rs 91.21 lakh, details of illegally acquired immovable properties worth more than Rs 250 crore and various incriminating documents were recovered and seized.

The ED initiated PMLA investigation on the basis of the FIRs lodged in Indore in case of illegal sale and alienation of the lands of housing co-operative societies by Madda in connivance with other builders and developers.

"The accused persons in connivance with each other illegally sold and alienated hundreds of acres of land belonging to co-operative societies located at Indore, Madhya Pradesh. These lands were originally acquired by housing cooperative societies to allot housing plots to its own members. As on date, the market value of these lands pertaining to numerous societies is estimated to be more than 1,000 crore," the official said.

The ED said that these lands were usurped and were subsequently sold to various accused persons causing massive loss to the housing society and thus depriving its members from their rightful ownership of plots. Several attempts of defrauding the society by siphoning away the movable assets such as bank accounts, etc of the housing societies have also come to notice.