News: ED Arrests Ex-Lodha Developers Director in Rs 85 Crore Case-13-02-2026
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday formally arrested Rajendra Lodha, a former director of Lodha Developers Limited, in a money laundering case involving an alleged Rs 85 crore, PTI reported from Mumbai.
The ED case arises from a cheating and forgery case registered by Mumbai police under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Lodha was arrested in that crime branch case in September last year and has been in judicial custody since. The ED brought him on production remand before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court and arrested him there; he was to be produced on Friday for his first remand.
The agency alleges that Lodha, made a director in 2015 with authority limited to land acquisition, exceeded that mandate to carry out a string of unauthorised transactions. With his son Sahil Lodha and close associates, he is accused of generating, concealing and laundering proceeds of crime, causing the company a wrongful loss of more than Rs 85 crore.
According to the ED, company funds were diverted through bogus possession holders and fabricated MoUs and withdrawn in cash, and company land and Transferable Development Rights were disposed of at undervalued rates. He is also alleged to have facilitated benami transactions, siphoned money through entities he controlled, used company resources for himself and family-linked entities, and arranged undervalued allotment of flats under forged permanent alternate accommodation agreements to benefit associates.
Among the instances cited, Lodha allegedly bought land through front entities such as Usha Properties and Shreeram Realties and resold it to Lodha Developers at grossly inflated prices. Company land of 4,150 sq metres in Panvel, worth about Rs 10 crore, was sold to a front entity for Rs 48 lakh, a loss of Rs 9.50 crore.
The ED said it found a structured "bogus possession/barter deal" mechanism using forged MoUs. It also alleged that land bought in 2013 in the name of employee Mangesh Puranik was fraudulently transferred to Lodha’s associates after Puranik’s death and resold to the company at a large profit.
