ED attaches Dalmia Cements (Bharat) owned land worth ₹377.2 crore, ET RealEstate
HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad unit of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached shares worth 27.5 crore belonging to Andhra Pradesh former chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, and land worth 377.2 crore owned by Dalmia Cements (Bharat) Limited (DCBL) in connection with a money laundering case related to quid pro quo investments. However, DCBL stated that the attached property is worth 793.3 crore. The attachment comes 14 years after the case was booked.
The provisional attachment by the ED stems from an earlier case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2011, wherein DCBL invested in Bharathi Cement Corporation Private Limited. Shares of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in Carmel Asia Holdings Limited, Saraswati Power and Industries Private Limited, and Harsha Firm were attached. The provisional attachment order issued on March 31 was received by DCBL on April 15, 2025. The initial purchase value of the land was 377 crore.
Investigations by the CBI and ED revealed that DCBL had invested 95 crore into Raghuram Cements Ltd., represented by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. It is alleged that as a ‘quid pro quo’ deal, Jagan enabled the grant and transfer of a mining lease for an area of 407 hectares in Kadapa district to DCBL, using his influence over his father and then chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
ED and CBI alleged that, as per an agreement between YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, auditor and former MP V Vijaya Sai Reddy, and Puneet Dalmia of DCBL, they sold their shares in Raghuram Cements Ltd to a French company named PARFICIM for 135 crore, out of which 55 crore was paid to Jagan between May 16, 2010, and June 13, 2011, in cash through hawala channels. The details of the payments were found in the material seized by the income tax wing, New Delhi.
The investigating agencies further alleged that DCBL returned the alleged sale proceeds to Jagan in cash through hawala channels, establishing that the initial payment of 95 crore was illegal gratification for the undue benefits received by them from the AP govt, and not a genuine investment. A chargesheet was already filed by CBI on April 8, 2013 against the accused, including Jagan, under various sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The agencies alleged that incriminating material recovered by them sheds light on a plan to transfer 139 crore into Jagan’s firms through hawala channels. It added that 55 crore was already transferred. “By the time efforts were on to transfer the remaining amount through the same hawala channels, the CBI came into the picture after it was ordered to register an FIR and investigate the alleged quid pro quo case. So the transfer of the balance amount did not take place,” he said.
The CBI filed a chargesheet in the special court showing DCBL as accused No. 3 in the case, involving the transfer of a prospective mining lease from Eswar Cements to DCBL. Meanwhile, DCBL informed SEBI that it has received the attachment orders, and that the order did not impact DCBL’s operations. DCBL said it is examining the attachment order and shall take appropriate legal steps to defend itself in the matter.
