IL&FS’s ex-chief, others booked, premises raided
MONEY LAUNDERING
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided several locations in Mumbai and Delhi on Wednesday in connection with the Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) payment default incident and registered a case against former top officials of the beleaguered company.
The former chairman of IL&FS, Ravi Parthasarathy, along with other former officials of the company, has also been booked under relevant sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The raids were conducted in locations like Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) office of Ravi Parthasarathy and on the premises of other former officials said police.
The infrastructure financier, IL&FS, had defaulted on its obligations after accumulating a debt of Rs92,000 crore, which subsequently led to a liquidity crunch. A senior ED official said, on request of confidentiality, the case was registered after the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) of the government submitted its report in the IL&FS matter. The report stated instances of misappropriation of income, dubious transactions, conflict of interest and personal enrichment of key employees.
The ED officials raided the BKC office of the IL&FS, along with other offices in Haryana’s Gurugram and Delhi, and seized important documents, showing misappropriation of funds and confiscated hard drives with potent information.
“Similar raids were conducted in the Delhi-NCR offices of the IL&FS, concerning financial irregularities in the infrastructure financier company,” said an ED official. The ED will probe if funds generated illegally in the case, were laundered to create illegitimate assets by the accused.
The ED officials raided the BKC office of the IL&FS, along with other offices in Haryana’s Gurugram and Delhi, and seized important documents, showing misappropriation of funds and confiscated hard drives with potent information.