The ED conducted searches at 13 locations, including the premises of a Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation (VVMC) official, as part of a money laundering case involving unauthorised construction of 41 buildings on 60 acres of land allocated for sewage treatment and waste disposal facilities. The developers constructed these buildings using falsified documents, fabricated approvals and fraudulent sale agreements. The searches were at the premises of Y S Reddy, deputy director of town planning at VVMC, former Bahujan Vikas Aghadi Party (BVA) corporator Sitaram Gupta, and Vijay Tambat (Vijay Salvi), who allegedly has connections with gangster Chhota Rajan. Reddy faced arrest in a corruption case approximately eight years ago, while Gupta was arrested for cheating and forgery related to illegal construction. The ED initiated the money laundering investigation based on multiple FIRs filed against Gupta and others by defrauded homebuyers. Earlier, the home buyers had approached the court against the action initiated by the civic authority to demolish the illegal structures but didn't get any relief. The Supreme Court also refused to provide any relief to them and asked them to approach the government for rehabilitation while it instructed local authorities to proceed with demolishing structures built on the reserved land. It was alleged that Gupta had allegedly occupied plots illegally, constructed buildings without permission after document falsification, and sold them to unsuspecting economically disadvantaged individuals. Half of the land was wetland, whereas the remaining was privately owned reserved plots. In the 2010 development plan, the privately owned portion of the land was reserved for a dumping ground and sewage treatment facilities.
 

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