After ED raid, Hampton Sky Realty says company cooperating with statutory authorities

Hampton Sky Realty Limited, in which Punjab minister Sanjeev Arora served as a director, on Saturday said the company has faith in the legal process and is fully cooperating with all the statutory authorities and will continue to do so. ''All relevant facts, documents and verifiable records will be placed before the appropriate fora in due course of law.

The company has complete faith in the facts of the case, in the integrity of its statutory records, and in the wisdom of the judiciary. It is confident that the truth will prevail,'' said a statement issued by Hampton Sky Realty on Saturday evening.

The statement came after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday arrested Punjab industries minister Sanjeev Arora following a series of raids in connection with a Rs 100 crore money laundering probe linked to alleged fraudulent GST transactions. Before arresting Arora from his residence in Chandigarh following a raid, the ED conducted searches at five locations across northern India as part of the operation.

These included two premises in Delhi and that of Hampton Sky Realty Ltd at Udyog Vihar in Gurugram. The raids came after the central agency registered a new case under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), officials said. The inputs for the latest case emerged from a search under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), which the ED initiated against Arora and some others on April 17. The agency had raided Arora and his linked entities under the civil provisions of FEMA, and on April 19, it provisionally attached movable and immovable assets of Hampton Sky Realty, Arora, and entities linked to him for alleged FEMA violation through bogus sales and exports to the tune of Rs 157.12 crore. The latest probe (under the PMLA) pertains to ''fake'' GST purchases of mobile phones worth more than Rs 100 crore and subsequent exports to ''round trip'' alleged illegitimate funds from Dubai to India, according to the ED. The ED has alleged that multiple fake GST purchase invoices were acquired from ''non-existing'' firms in Delhi to falsely claim input tax credit. In the statement, Hampton Sky Realty said, ''With reference to the recent developments concerning the proceedings of the Enforcement Directorate, the company places on record the following factual position.

The company reposes complete faith in its established facts, and in the legal and constitutional framework of the country…'' The statement said that recognising mobile phone exports as a thrust sector by the government of India, the company entered the cellphone export business in May 2023. During the export period, the company exported 44,471 units of branded handsets and accessories, the statement said. ''Every export was verified at multiple statutory stages by independent authorities outside the company's control,'' it said. Bank realisation certificates issued by the authorised dealer bank against full receipt of export proceeds were uploaded on the DGFT (Directorate General of Foreign Trade) eBRC portal, the statement said.

''Nothing has been retained offshore, kept in any concealed account, or routed back to any individual or entity. The receipt-and-payment trail is open. This factual position alone disposes of any allegation of 'round-tripping' or 'bogus exports','' it said. Round-tripping is a financial concept that requires the retention or diversion of funds for the benefit of the alleged perpetrator. ''In the present case, no funds have been retained by the company or any of its associates. There is no economic basis on which an allegation of round-tripping can stand,'' it said. On the supplier-side GST concerns, the company claimed to be the ''victim''. ''The proceedings refer to GST input tax credit concerns relating to a small number of the company's domestic suppliers.

These transactions constitute only a small percentage of the company's total mobile phone procurement and are entirely on the supplier side. ''The company made all payments to suppliers through banking channels with GST duly charged, filed its GST returns regularly, and reflected all transactions on its books,'' the statement said. It also claimed that on its own initiative, when the supplier-side fraud came to the company's knowledge, it approached the police as the complainant by lodging an FIR on May 17, 2025, in Ludhiana against the said suppliers.

''The company is the victim of the alleged supplier-side fraud, and it proactively reported the matter to law-enforcement authorities approximately one year ago, well before any investigative pressure,'' the statement said. It added that where the GST authorities raised concerns regarding input tax credit, the corresponding GST amount was already deposited by the company, and it is being contested before the GST appellate authority. ''There is no current loss to the government exchequer on account of the company's transactions,'' it claimed.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)