Every common man dreams of buying his own house. He invests his entire life’s savings for this, but when he does not get his house even after waiting for years, this dream turns into a nightmare. Something similar has happened to thousands of customers of ADEL Landmarks (formerly Era Landmarks). After almost 19 years of long wait and allegations of fraud, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has now taken major action in this case. ED has seized assets worth more than ₹585 crore, tightening the noose on the company and its promoters.
Assets worth ₹585 crore seized
The Gurugram zonal office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has taken strict action against ADEL Landmarks Limited and its promoters Hem Singh Bhadana and Sumit Bhadana in a serious case of money laundering. The ED issued a provisional order on January 9, 2026, under which the company’s immovable properties worth ₹585.46 crore have been temporarily attached.
Surprisingly, the seized properties include around 340 acres of land. These lands are located in major cities of Haryana like Gurugram, Faridabad, Palwal, Bahadurgarh and Meerut and Ghaziabad of Uttar Pradesh. According to the investigating agency, these properties were registered in the name of the company and its subsidiaries, and have now been seized under PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act).
₹1000 crore scam
The roots of this whole matter are quite deep. ED started its investigation on the basis of 74 separate FIRs and chargesheets filed by Haryana Police, Delhi Police and Economic Offenses Wing (EOW). The investigation revealed that the company had launched several attractive housing projects in NCR between 2006 and 2012.
If we look at the figures, the seriousness of the situation becomes clear. The company had collected around ₹1,075 crore from 4,771 customers in the name of bookings of eight projects including Cosmocourt, Cosmocity, Skyville, Redwood Residency and Era Green World. The promise was that the flats and units would be delivered on time. However, the truth is that even after 12 to 19 years, these projects are incomplete, and buyers are left empty handed.
Land was purchased instead of building a house
The most shocking revelation in the ED investigation is that the money collected from customers was not invested in the projects. The investigating agency alleges that the promoters transferred the hard-earned money of home buyers to other companies of the group. It is alleged that this money was used to buy land elsewhere and for personal gains, while the projects for which the money was collected remained incomplete. Additionally, the company repeatedly changed project plans and layouts without informing customers. The facilities and land area that were initially promised were later reduced. When upset buyers asked for refunds, they were given cheques, many of which bounced.
Land secretly mortgaged to banks
The fraud did not stop here. Investigation also revealed that the promoters took loans worth crores of rupees by mortgaging the land of these projects with banks. All this was done without the knowledge of the customers who had already paid for the flats to be built on that land. At present, the ED investigation is ongoing, and efforts are being made to find out where the transferred money has been hidden.
