ED raids Vadodara firm, directors in ₹2,600-crore bank loan fraud
NEW DELHI/AHMEDABAD: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday conducted multiple searches in connection with a money laundering case against a Vadodarabased company for allegedly cheating various banks to the tune of Rs 2,654 crore.
Officials said the raids were being carried out at seven places in Vadodara district and the premises of the firm -- Diamond Power Infrastructure Ltd (DPIL).
The corporate office of the company in Gorwa area of the city, factories in Vadadala and Ranoli and residential premises of its executives in Nizampura and New Alkapuri were being raided, they said.
The agency carried out the searches after it filed a criminal complaint under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against the company, based on a recent CBI FIR.
The CBI had conducted raids in the case last week.
The ED is probing if the alleged defaulted loans were laundered to create illegal assets and black money by the accused.
The CBI had alleged that DPIL, which manufactures electric cables and equipment, is promoted by S N Bhatnagar and his sons Amit Bhatnagar and Sumit Bhatnagar, who were also the executives of the firm.
It is alleged that DPIL, through its management, had fraudulently availed credit facilities from a consortium of 11 banks (both public and private) since 2008, leaving behind an outstanding debit of Rs 2,654.40 crore as on June 29, 2016, the CBI said.
The loan amount of Rs 2,654 crore, it said, was declared a non-performing asset in 2016-17.
The company and its directors managed to get the term loans and credit facilities, in spite of the fact that they were named in the Reserve Bank's defaulters list and ECGC (Export Credit Guarantee Corporation) caution list at the time of the initial sanction of credit limits by the consortium, the agency had alleged.
At the time of formation of consortium in 2008, Axis Bank was the lead bank for the term loan and Bank of India was the lead bank for cash credit limits. It is alleged that the firm, with active connivance of officials from various banks, managed to get enhanced credit facilities.
According to the CBI, the company had been allegedly submitting false stock statements to the lead bank by treating receivables more than 180 days (non-current asset) as less than 180 days (current asset) to get more drawing power in their cash credit accounts. NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday said it will decide whether the PIL seeking a court-monitored probe into the over Rs 11,000 crore Punjab National Bank fraud case is maintainable or not.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud was told by the Centre that agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Income Tax department and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) are independently probing the PNB scam.
Attorney General KK Venugopal sought dismissal of the PIL seeking a court-monitored probe into the alleged scam saying multiple agencies are already probing the matter.
The AG was opposing a plea filed by lawyer Vineet Dhanda, who has sought an independent probe in the PNB case and a direction to the government to get diamond merchant Nirav Modi deported.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has already registered two FIRS -- one on January 31 and another in February -- against billionaire Nirav Modi, his relative Mehul Choksi of Gitanjali Gems and others for allegedly defrauding the bank of about Rs 11,400 crore.
The PIL has made PNB, the Reserve Bank of India and the ministries of finance and law and justice parties. It has sought a direction for initiation of deportation proceedings against Nirav Modi and others allegedly involved in the banking fraud, preferably within two months.
It has also asked for a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the case, allegedly involving Nirav Modi and Choksi, and a probe into the role of the top management of PNB. NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday opposed the bail application of a former Andhra Bank director, arrested in an alleged Rs 5,000 crore bank fraud case involving a Gujarat-based pharma firm, saying he may hamper the ongoing probe. The agency opposed the application moved by Anup Prakash Garg before the court of Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma in a written reply.
ED'S special public prosecutor Nitesh Rana told the court that the allegations against Garg were serious as about Rs 300 crore worth of loans were passed at his behest.
"If granted bail, he may hamper the ongoing investigation, influence the witnesses in the case and there is also likelihood that he may flee from justice," Rana told the court.
The court posted the matter for further hearing on April 28.
Garg (59) was arrested by the probe agency on January 12 and is currently in judicial custody. The ED had on February 9 filed a charge sheet against Garg under the sections of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
He was one of the three persons arrested in the case. The agency had earlier arrested Delhi-based businessman Gagan Dhawan and Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, one of the directors of the pharma firm, who are currently out on bail. All the three were arrested under the PMLA.
The ED had lodged the money laundering case after taking cognisance of an earlier FIR registered by the CBI.
The agency had claimed that during the probe, it had come across "certain entries" in a diary seized by the Income Tax department in 2011, which showed several cash payments amounting to Rs 1.52 crore made to one "Mr Garg, Director, Andhra Bank" by the Sandesara brothers between 2008 and 2009.
"Various cash payments were made to Garg, as reflected in the said entries, on the instructions of the Sandesara brothers, by withdrawing cash from the bank accounts of several benami companies owned by them," it had alleged.
The ED had claimed that Garg had infused several crores of his unaccounted money in various firms through several Kolkata-based bogus shell companies, with the help of cash or cheque entry operators in Kolkata, in order to launder the proceeds of crime obtained by him from the Sandesaras.