Bank fraud case: ED attaches assets worth Rs 33.71 cr under PMLA
Jul 15, 2020
New Delhi [India], July 16 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday attached assets of Rs 33 crores owned by Era Infra Engineering Limited, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in a case related to bank fraud.
"ED has attached assets totalling Rs 33.71 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in a bank fraud case. The attached assets include two Tunnel Machines (at DMRC, Mundka, Delhi) valued at Rs 18.31 Crore and Rs. 15.40 Crore respectively owned by M/s. Era Infra Engineering Limited," the ED said in a statement.
Pointing out that it initiated the probe on the basis of FIR filed by CBI, the agency said,"ED initiated investigations under PMLA on the basis of FIR dated 12.04.2018 of the Central Bureau of Investigation, New Delhi under section 120 B read with 420, 467, 468 and 471 of IPC, 1860 and under section 13(2) read with 13 (1)(d) of P.C. Act against M/s. Era Infra Engineering Limited (EIEL), Hem Singh Bharana, CMD, unknown public servants of the Bank, unknown private persons and others."
"The CBI case is related to criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and use of forged documents and criminal misconduct by Hem Singh Bharana of M/s. Era Infra Engineering Limited (EIEL) and other accused persons in sanction, disbursement & utilization of two-term loans amounting to Rs 650 Crores," it said.
The investigations conducted by ED have revealed that the sanctioned funds were disbursed and utilized in a manner defying the sanctioned purpose.
Out of Rs 450 Crore disbursed by UCO Bank, an amount of Rs 211 Crores and Rs 25 Crore were utilized for purposes beyond the purview of the sanctioned terms. Amount diverted by EIEL comes to Rs 236 Crore out of the term loan of Rs 450 Crore. Further an amount of Rs 14.70 Crore diverted from the other sanctioned amount of Rs 200 Crore and thus the total amount diverted by EIEL in this manner comes to Rs 250.70 Crore which qualifies as 'Proceeds of Crime' under PMLA.
Out of the total Proceeds of crime of Rs 250.70 Crore, assets valued at Rs. 5.72 Crore were provisionally attached earlier which has been confirmed by Adjudicating Authority. Now including this provisional attachment of Rs 33.71 crores, total attachment of assets, in this case, is Rs 39.43 Crores, the agency said.
Further investigations to trace and identify the proceeds of crime and assets are under progress, the agency said.
