New Delhi [India], June 9 (ANI): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at six locations across Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and the Delhi-Noida region as part of an ongoing investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) linked to a real estate case, officials said on Tuesday.

According to officials, the searches were carried out at residential and business premises connected to persons and entities under probe in the case allegedly involving Hampton Sky Realty Ltd.

'The search operations were conducted at six premises across Ludhiana and Jalandhar in Punjab, Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, and the Delhi-Noida region. The action is part of an ongoing investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The premises being covered include both residences and business offices connected with the persons and entities under investigation in the case of Hampton Sky Realty Ltd,' officials said.

Further investigation is currently underway.

In a separate incident, ED had identified 36,000 active Indian SIM cards operating from Cambodia, with nearly 5,300 linked to cyber fraud cases involving hundreds of crores rupees across India.

The major cyber fraud was unearthed after the ED initiated an investigation on the basis of a First Information Report (FIR) registered by Cyber Police Station DCP (Crime), Jodhpur, against certain Point of Sale (POS) vendors regarding misuse of SIM cards by them.

The probe revealed that Indian mobile numbers were fraudulently activated by the POS vendors and supplied to the Malaysian nationals, who subsequently operated them from Cambodia to commit cyber fraud in India. (ANI)