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Nagpur, Oct 24 (IANS) The ED has attached movable and immovable properties worth Rs 67.79 crore in the form of bank balances, land, buildings and flats linked to a businessman and a coal-based power project company involved in a Rs 4,300 crore bank loan fraud. An official gave this information on Friday.
The Nagpur zonal unit of ED took action against properties located in Maharashtra, Kolkata, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh in the name of Manoj Jaiswal, his family members and others.
The action was taken under the provisions of PMLA, 2002 on October 16 in the case against Corporate Power Limited and others. The total attached/seized/frozen bank assets in this case now stands at Rs 571 crore.
The money laundering case against the company and its officials pertains to a proposed 1080 MW coal-based power plant in Jharkhand, for which a loan was taken from a consortium of 20 banks led by Union Bank of India.
The ED initiated its PMLA investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Corporate Power Limited, its promoters, directors and others for criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery.
The federal agency’s investigation revealed that the accused created a network of 800 shell companies and 5,000 bank accounts to misappropriate loan funds that were declared non-performing assets (NPAs) in 2013-14.
Earlier, the agency had conducted searches in Kolkata, Nagpur and Visakhapatnam in the case and recovered cash, documents and seized movable assets like mutual funds, securities and fixed deposits.
After filing the FIR, the CBI said in a statement in 2022 that the consortium’s lead lender Union Bank of India declared the account as non-performing asset (NPA) on September 30, 2013 and subsequently, other member consortium banks also classified the said account as NPA.
The CBI said in a statement that the accounts of the said debtor company were declared fraudulent on October 25, 2019.
Highlighting the modus operandi used in the loan fraud of Rs 4,307.87 crore, the CBI said, “It is further alleged that between the years 2009 to 2013, the said borrower fudged the project cost details and also diverted bank funds.”
It was also alleged that trade receipts, which mainly consisted of transactions involving related parties and funds, were funneled into various companies that were dummy accounts; Accordingly, the borrower was able to withdraw the funds, the CBI statement said.
–IANS
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