ED Attaches ₹59 Crore Assets in Lodha Developers Cheating Case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached assets worth around ₹59 crore in connection with its money laundering probe into developer Rajendra Lodha. The probe alleges that Lodha caused a wrongful loss of more than ₹100 crore to Lodha Developers Limited (LDL) when he was on the company’s board of directors.

The movable assets, including cash, bank balances, and fixed deposits, were attached on Wednesday during searches conducted at 14 locations in the city and adjoining areas. The ED’s Mumbai unit also seized various incriminating documents, digital devices, and details of immovable assets purportedly worth several crores during the searches, officials said.

Rajendra Lodha began working with LDL in 1990 and became a director of the company in 2015. In 2021, he also became a promoter and was given the right to purchase land for the company, though not to sell land. He was booked by the NM Joshi Marg police in September this year, along with his son Sahil, B Narsana, N Wador, R Narsana, N Menon, N Desai, A Kamble, S Singh, and Vinod Patil, based on a complaint from the company.

According to the first information report (FIR) registered by the police, Lodha and the other accused had sold several LDL properties at cheap rates, causing a loss of more than ₹100 crore to the company. They were accordingly booked for cheating, abuse of official position, unauthorised sale of assets, and creation of false documents under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Lodha was arrested shortly after the registration of the FIR.

The ED’s probe revealed that Lodha was involved in diverting or siphoning off funds and assets of LDL through the unauthorised sale and transfer of company-owned immovable properties at undervalued prices. ED officials said the properties were sold to proxy entities and individuals connected to him without the approval of the board of directors.

Lodha was also involved in fabricating memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for land purchase at inflated prices and subsequently siphoning the inflated amount through sellers, ED officials said.

In July 2025, LDL learnt that Lodha allegedly owned more property than his known sources of income, including a 5,900-square metre plot, which he had sold in August 2023 to a certain S Jadhav for ₹88 lakh. The plot, located close to the upcoming Virar-Alibaug multi-modal corridor, was resold within ten months for a whopping ₹10.88 crore, the ED found during its probe. When LDL asked Lodha to furnish details about his assets and properties, he resigned from the company, officials said.