Fugitive businessman Praveen Kumar Kapoor held in US, deported to India

NEw new delhi: Praveen Kumar Kapoor, co-founder and booster of realty house SRS aggroup accused of cheating investors and sir joseph banks of ₹2,200 crore, was stopped by the US authorities from entering New York based on an Interpol red notice and has been deported to India, people familiar with the development said on Tuesday.Kapoor, 62, a resident of Faridabad, along with two other promoter-directors of SRS Group - Jitender Kumar Garg, Sunil Jindal- had been absconding for the past several years and were said to be hiding in Georgia and Dubai, officials said.“The Interpol Washington office informed us that the fugitive businessman, Praveen Kumar Kapoor, was travelling on October 31 to New York. The authorities at Newark International Airport stopped him based on the Interpol red notice issued earlier this year. The US government cancelled his B1/B2 visa and deported him to India the next day (November 1),” said an officer, who asked not to be named.The fugitive arrived in Delhi on November 2 at IGI airport and was taken into custody by Faridabad police and is currently being questioned about the whereabouts of Jitender Kumar Garg and Sunil Jindal.A second officer said “the ED will take his custody soon and ask him about the laundered funds”. The financial crimes probe agency had, in August, initiated proceedings to declare Kapoor, Garg and Jindal as fugitive economic offenders (FEOs). “ED investigation under FEOA (Fugitive Economic Offenders Act) has revealed that all three accused persons have left India, and it is reasonably ascertained that Jitender Kumar Garg, Sunil Jindal and Praveen Kumar Kapoor are residing in Georgia and Dubai, respectively,” the agency said in a statement in August this year.ED, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Haryana police are investigating SRS Group and its promoter-directors in multiple cases. A money laundering investigation taken up by the ED based on 81 first information reports (FIRs) filed at various police stations has revealed that SRS Group lured investors to invest in the company in lieu of promise of high returns on their investments and into various residential and commercial projects.“Funds from such investments were deposited in hundreds of shell companies created by SRS Group and were subsequently laundered off”, ED said in a statement in August this year. The agency has already attached assets worth ₹2,215 crore in the case.Kapoor, officials said, is the director of Horizon Global Limited, SRS Finance Limited, and promoter-director of SRS Group of Companies. “He, along with other accused persons hatched a criminal conspiracy and lured investments from innocent investors or depositors and homebuyers by giving them false promises of high returns. These investments were eventually siphoned off resulting in huge losses to the investors. He along with others inflated books of the SRS Group of companies by way of circular transactions and round tripping of funds in order to secure loans from banks and financial institutions. The loans taken from multiple private as well as public sector banks were also diverted to various shell companies. The purpose of taking these loans was portrayed to the banks as construction/development of the real estate projects. He diverted funds to his family members, partners and firms controlled by him and his family members in India as well as abroad,” said the second officer cited above.