ED attaches assets worth Rs 47.1 cr of Rosary Education Group in bank loan fraud

New Delhi [India], March 20 : The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has provisionally attached four immovable properties belonging to the Rosary Education Group and its partners -- Vinay Aranha and Vivek Aranha -- totalling Rs 47.1 crore under the relevant provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
ED on Monday said it initiated an investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by Pune Police, which was on the basis of some complaints, wherein it was alleged that the accused persons had obtained a loan of Rs 20.44 crore from Cosmos Bank by submitting fake property documents.
Further, ED investigation established that the accused persons had obtained multiple loans including car loans in the year 2013-14 from Cosmos Cooperative Bank Pune by way of submitting fabricated property documents and mortgages and grossly overvalued these to avail loans for which they were otherwise ineligible.
Vinay Aranha, ED said, submitted bogus work invoices and got loans disbursed to bogus vendors which were immediately withdrawn in cash and handed back to Vinay Aranha. ED has conducted a fund trail investigation and found that Vinay Aranha diverted the loans and got crores of rupees in cash. Vinay Aranha got loan amounts disbursed of Rs 34 Crore to M/s Paramount Infrastructure, Shabbir Patanwala, Ashwin Kamat, M/s Deepti Enterprises and others.
ED arrested Vinay Aranha under PMLA on March 10 and he is presently under ED custody till Monday.
"The present market value of the attached properties is estimated to be around Rs 98.20 crore. The attached properties include lands and school buildings which are owned in the name of Vinay Aranha and family," ED said, adding further investigations into the matter are on.