New Delhi, Nov 25 (IANS): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday carried out searches at 22 locations in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh in connection with the money laundering probe against Shine City, a real estate company.

According to ED sources, multiple teams of the agency carried out searches at 22 locations in the cities of Varanasi, Hardoi, Prayagraj, Lucknow and some locations in the national capital.

On October 5 this year, the ED had attached properties worth Rs 17.92 crore of the Shine City, in the form of plots of land located in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi.

The attached properties are in form of 47 parcels of land measuring 10.27 hectares located at Rajatalab Tehsil of Varanasi.

The ED began probe on the basis of various FIRs registered by Uttar Pradesh Police scattered across the state, wherein it was alleged that the company and accused persons cheated the public at large by luring them to invest in various lucrative schemes floated by the company.

It said that ED probe revealed that the money collected from public was found to have been diverted by the accused, thus defrauding the investors.

The agency said that it had earlier attached various immovable properties worth Rs 110.62 crore in the name of accused persons, Rashid Naseem, Asif Naseem, Amitabh Kumar Srivastava, Meera Srivastava and in the name of several Shine City Group companies.

The total attachment made so far in this case is about Rs 128.54 crore.