Belagavi businessman Shivanand Neelannavar was arrested on August 13. (File Photo)

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached assets worth Rs 427.16 crore belonging to businessman Shivanand Neelannavar and people and entities linked to him in connection with an alleged Rs 2,459 crore Ponzi scheme operated from Karnataka’s Belagavi.

ED said Saturday it has attached Rs 367.78 crore in fixed deposits across multiple banks, Rs 44.38 crore in bank balances, and Rs 13.69 crore in immovable properties, and has frozen Rs 1.32 crore worth of shares.

ED has already filed a chargesheet before the court in the case and has continued the investigation.

The agency’s investigation was based on an FIR registered by the Malamaruthi police station in Belagavi city under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, 2019, and the Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments (KPID) Act, 2004.

According to ED, Neelannavar and his associates…