New Delhi, Feb 4 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate’s Jalandhar Zonal Office issued a provisional attachment order on January 30, attaching assets valued at Rs 19.10 crore in connection with an ongoing money laundering investigation against the Vuenov group of companies under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, an ED statement said on Wednesday.
The latest attachment identifies proceeds of crime worth Rs 19.10 crore in the form of immovable properties, fixed deposits, and listed shareholdings. These assets belong to Sukhvinder Singh Kharour, Vuenov Infratech Private Limited, Nitin Srivastava and his wife Ruchi Srivastava, as well as family members of Vijay, an accountant linked to the Kharour group, the statement said.
Earlier actions included a provisional attachment of properties worth Rs 178.12 crore on February 6, 2025, and freezing of Rs 73.72 crore during searches on August 14, 2025.
Sukhvinder Singh Kharour and Dimple Kharour were arrested on February 28, 2025, at Delhi’s IGI Airport while attempting to flee, and Arif Nisar was apprehended on February 24, 2025. All remain in judicial custody.
A prosecution complaint was filed before the PMLA Special Court on April 24, 2025. The probe stems from multiple FIRs registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, by Gautam Budh Nagar (Noida) Police and Punjab Police, involving a large-scale investment fraud dubbed the ‘Cloud Rupees Scam’ or ‘Cloud Particle Scam’.
Sukhvinder Singh Kharour, the CEO and founder of the Vuenov Group, allegedly orchestrated the scheme in collusion with other accused persons and entities, siphoning off hard-earned money from thousands of general public investors for personal gains, it said.
The fraudulent operation relied on a sale and lease-back model for purported ‘cloud particles’—claimed to be data centre servers—promising attractive monthly rental returns. Investigations revealed the underlying business was largely non-existent or grossly overstated, with insignificant or no actual rental income from data centre clients.
The entire setup functioned as a money rotation scheme, where funds from new investors were used to pay partial returns to earlier ones, creating an illusion of legitimacy.
Out of approximately Rs 3,558 crore collected from investors through the sale of cloud particles, around Rs 1,800 crore was returned as fake rent, while the remaining proceeds of crime were diverted.
These funds supported lavish expenditures, including high commissions to channel partners, purchases of luxury vehicles, gold, diamonds, routing through shell entities, and investments in properties worth hundreds of crores.
The ED continues its investigation to uncover the full extent of the fraud, trace additional diverted funds, and safeguard investor interests in this multi-thousand-crore deception that exploited trust in emerging tech investments.
–IANS
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