ED attaches assets worth Rs 9.77 cr of former IDFPL directors in Pune

The ED has provisionally attached assets including six immovable properties located at Pune and movable assets including fixed deposits or FDs and investments in equity market or mutual funds worth Rs 4.06 crore.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached assets worth Rs 9.77 crore in a money laundering investigation against Iced Desserts and Food Parlours India (IDFPL) former directors Ravi Ayyaswamy Ramasubramanian and Rajiv Deepak Mata for allegedly siphoning funds from the company. The ED had provisionally attached assets including six immovable properties located at Pune and movable assets including fixed deposits or FDs and investments in equity market or mutual funds worth Rs 4.06 crore.

ED initiated the money laundering investigation based on the FIR and chargesheet filed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Pune against Ramasubramanian and Mata for siphoning Rs 38.68 crore from IDFPL. The ED investigation has established that a criminal conspiracy was hatched by Ramasubramanian and Mata to fraudulently siphon funds from the bank accounts of IDFPL to entities controlled by them namely -- VRR Trading Co, Sri Venkateshwara Traders and RM Associates.

ED said both Ramasubramanian and Mata had been working in IDFPL for a long time and they misused the trust reposed in them. They had the authority to operate bank accounts and even prepare and maintain their books of accounts. According to the agency, the books of accounts of IDFPL were manipulated and fudged to hide the actual transactions undertaken with the entities controlled by them. The ED investigation revealed that a total of Rs 42.63 crore was siphoned from IDFPL during the period ranging from 2003 to 2016.

The siphoned funds were utilised by the accused for investments in the purchase of fixed assets, insurance policies, cash withdrawals and business expenditures, the agency said. The majority of the siphoned amount was withdrawn in cash and has been exhausted without creating any tangible asset. The ED has identified assets created from the proceeds of crime and equivalent assets and a provisional attachment order has been issued to preserve the proceeds of crime. The matter is still being investigated, the agency said. (ANI)