ED Arrests Jaypee Infratech MD Manoj Gaur in ₹15,000 Crore Money Laundering Case
Massive laundering bust over home buyer fraud.
The Enforcement Directorate executed a stunning midnight arrest of Manoj Gaur, the long-reigning Managing Director and public face of Jaypee Infratech Ltd, dragging the real estate tycoon into custody amid a ferocious money laundering probe that has exposed a decade-long scheme to defraud tens of thousands of home buyers who poured their life savings into undelivered dream homes, official sources confirmed on Thursday morning.
Gaur was formally detained under the iron-clad provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after marathon questioning at the ED’s Delhi headquarters, where forensic accountants presented irrefutable digital trails of fund diversion; the arrest caps a multi-agency investigation launched in 2017 when the Supreme Court first flagged Jaypee’s insolvency and ordered protection for over 32,000 aggrieved buyers left staring at skeletal structures in Noida and Greater Noida.
At the heart of the case lies a meticulously documented trail of deceit: home buyers who booked flats in flagship projects like Wish Town, Aman, and Kensington Boulevard between 2008 and 2014 handed over advance payments totaling over ₹15,000 crore, only for investigators to discover that nearly 60% of these funds were siphoned off through layered transactions to sister concerns, luxury asset purchases, and offshore entities, leaving construction stalled and families in financial ruin.
Also Read: ED Seizes Rs 67 Crore in Assets Linked to Banned PFI and Its Political Wing SDP
ED sleuths have mapped a labyrinthine laundering network involving over 200 shell companies, benami bank accounts, and inflated invoices for non-existent civil works; sources say Gaur personally authorized transfers worth ₹2,800 crore to Jaypee Associates and other group firms marked as “inter-corporate deposits” that were never repaid, while simultaneously drawing a ₹48-crore salary and perks package even as buyer refunds remained frozen under insolvency proceedings.
This arrest reverberates far beyond boardrooms—it signals an unprecedented crackdown on white-collar real estate barons who treated buyer funds as personal piggy banks, with the ED now preparing to attach Gaur’s sprawling farmhouses, luxury cars, and equity stakes; for the lakhs of middle-class families still awaiting justice, the handcuffs on Jaypee’s top boss mark the first tangible hope that their stolen futures might finally be reclaimed.
Also Read: ED Seizes Rs 1 Crore Cash, Jaguar and Land Rover from Bengal Human Trafficking Ring Operators
