ED arrests Ozone Urbana promoter S Vasudevan in ₹927.22 crore homebuyer fraud probe

What the ED says happened

The Enforcement Directorate's Bengaluru Zonal Office arrested Vasudevan under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, on September 30, 2026. He was subsequently remanded to 14 days' custody by the Special Court (PMLA), Bengaluru, on October 1. The agency's case is that the company took payments from buyers but did not hand over the homes they had booked, and did not refund the money.

The ED's probe is also looking at where the money went. The agency is now probing the alleged diversion and layering of funds through multiple group companies.

The pre-EMI offer and missed possession

According to the ED's statement, the company offered buyers to cover their pre-construction EMIs until the flat was handed over. The agency says the company did not honour those commitments and did not complete the project or the flats. The ED says the builder neither delivered possession nor refunded deposits, and misused the full booking or loan amount. These are allegations from the agency and have not been tested at trial.

Assets and attachment

The ED has already attached property in the case. Reports list provisionally attached properties worth ₹423.378 crore. The ED issued a provisional attachment order under the PMLA on October 4, 2025, based on evidence it had gathered. A provisional attachment is an interim step. It does not by itself settle the amount owed to buyers.

Parallel CBI cases and the common director

A separate probe under the PMLA is based on three different FIRs registered by the CBI, New Delhi, against Ozone Infra Developers Pvt Ltd, Ozone Realtors Pvt Ltd and Ozone Projects Pvt Ltd for defrauding homebuyers. The ED says Vasudevan is the common director in all three companies under investigation. The CBI FIR was registered on the direction of the Supreme Court.

What it means for homebuyers

The arrest is a criminal enforcement step against the promoter. It is not a completion plan or a refund scheme for the affected projects. The reports reviewed for this article do not describe a completion timeline, a refund process or a new developer taking over the units. Buyers with pending bookings should keep their agreements, payment receipts and any correspondence with the company, and should check the status of their case with the relevant regulator or court. Any recovery from the attached assets depends on the outcome of the ED and CBI proceedings.

What investors and the market should note

The case involves allegations that buyer money was used outside the projects it was paid for. Investors in Ozone-linked projects should treat the status of those projects as uncertain until courts or regulators say otherwise. The reports do not describe any effect on other developers or on market data for Bengaluru.

What happens next

The custody order covers 14 days from the October 1 remand, so the ED can question Vasudevan during that window. The agency is probing how funds were moved through multiple group companies. The reports reviewed do not give a charge-sheet date, a trial schedule or a court date for the next stage. Further updates will depend on the custody review, any new attachments and the outcome of the CBI cases.