In an extraordinary pre-dawn hearing, a Delhi judge convened court at her own residence at 3 am on Friday to remand a prominent builder, Swaraj Singh Yadav, into Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody. Yadav, the promoter of Ocean Seven Buildtech Pvt Ltd, is accused of masterminding a massive money laundering scam, allegedly siphoning over Rs 222 crore by illegally selling flats intended for the poor under the PM Awas Yojana.
The highly unusual session was held by Additional Sessions Judge Shefali Barnala Tandon of the Patiala House courts. The ED stated it had to produce Yadav “at this odd hour” to comply with legal guidelines requiring an accused to be presented before a court within 24 hours of a search. The agency’s search for Yadav had begun at 6:55 am on Thursday, and he was arrested before midnight.
The hearing at the judge’s residence began at 3:05 am and concluded at 6:30 am. The court remanded Yadav to ED’s custody until November 28, when he is scheduled to be produced again at 2 pm.
The case centers on allegations of a “nationwide money laundering scam since 2006,” which the ED claims duped thousands of buyers in Gurugram, Mumbai, Jaipur, and Kotputli. According to the agency, Yadav’s company illegally sold PM Awas Yojana flats in Gurgaon, which had an original cost of Rs 26.5 lakh each.
The ED accuses Yadav of cheating the original allottees, cancelling their allotments without refunding deposits, and then selling the same flats in all-cash transactions for inflated prices of Rs 40-50 lakh. The agency alleges that over Rs 222 crore of homebuyers’ money was siphoned through a related “in-house construction agency.”
These illicit funds were allegedly used to acquire a vast portfolio of personal assets. The ED cited 500 acres at Ware village in Maharashtra, 100 acres on the Pune-Alibag Road, Sai Rupa Resorts in Himachal Pradesh’s Tirthan Valley, land in Boston, US, and financial assets in the UK.
Arguing for custody, the ED presented Yadav as a significant flight risk, claiming he was engaged in an “accelerated liquidation” of assets in anticipation of legal action. The agency pointed to the recent sale of a flat in Gurugram, 40 acres in Borgaon, Maharashtra, and 15 acres in Jaipur.
The agency also informed the court that Yadav’s wife, Sunita Swaraj, had relocated to the US in August 2025 and that the accused had transferred “huge amounts” to the US via her bank account. With his children pursuing graduation from Trinity College in Connecticut, the ED argued there is “every possibility of his fleeing from justice.”
