Enforcement Directorate to Chargesheet Gurugram Realty Company for Multi-Crore Fraud in PMAY
New Delhi, The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is expected to chargesheet a Gurugram-based real estate company and its promoters in a multi-crore money laundering investigation linked to alleged irregularities in the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) and fraud with homebuyers, official sources confirmed on Sunday.
Swaraj Singh Yadav, the Managing Director (MD) and 'key person' of Ocean Seven Buildtech Pvt. Ltd., was arrested by the federal probe agency on November 13 and is currently in judicial custody. The ED alleges that Yadav fraudulently diverted and laundered homebuyers' funds worth ₹222 crore collected under PMAY. The funds were allegedly diverted through the cancellation and re-sale of units at inflated prices, collection of substantial cash premiums, and the diversion of Escrow proceeds into 'shell' entities.
The PMAY aims to provide housing to the economically weaker sections as part of the Union government's ambitious plan to ensure 'home for all'. The agency is currently valuing the assets of the company and its promoters to possibly attach them under the anti-money laundering law and restitute them to the victims of the alleged fraud. A chargesheet is also expected to be filed against Yadav and his linked entities soon.
The ED has found a pattern of accelerated liquidation of personal and company-held assets by Yadav across Gurugram, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. The agency claims that Yadav's wife, Sunita Swaraj, relocated to the US in August 2025 and is residing at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, while his children are studying at Trinity College in Connecticut. The ED alleges that such accelerated sales indicate a clear attempt to dissipate assets and evade legal action.
The investigation has revealed an alleged modus operandi deployed by Yadav to generate illicit funds. This involved cancelling the allotments of flats under PMAY under false pretexts and reselling the same units at higher prices without refunding earlier payments, thereby collecting dual proceeds. Yadav also controlled the cash-based premium collection over and above the money received through banking channels in such resales.
The agency found that the price of one PMAY flat was ₹26.5 lakh, but the allotment of the eligible homebuyer was cancelled under the pretext of non-payment and subsequently re-sold at a price ranging from ₹40-50 lakh. This resale process was executed without refunding the amount paid by the previous customer, resulting in the collection of dual payments against the same unit.
The ED also discovered that Yadav transferred a huge amount to the USA via a bank account opened in the name of his wife through hawala transactions. Yadav's legal team told a Delhi court during his remand proceedings in November that the majority of FIRs on which the ED relied to file a money laundering case against their client have been settled. However, the court of Additional Sessions Judge Shefali Barnala Tandon rejected Yadav's plea to quash his arrest and allowed ED's application for his 14 days custody on November 14. He was later sent to judicial custody.
This case highlights the importance of stringent regulations and oversight in the real estate sector, particularly in government-funded schemes like PMAY, to prevent such fraudulent activities and protect the interests of homebuyers.
