Bank fraud: ED attaches over Rs 107-cr assets of Kolkata firm

Assets worth over Rs 107 crore of a Kolkata-based firm have been attached in connection with a money-laundering probe linked to an alleged bank fraud case, the ED said on Tuesday. The action has been taken against directors of the company Fair Deal Suppliers, and land and building in Coimbatore, an office building, a farmhouse, bungalow in Ahmedabad and seven fixed deposits have been attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The total value of the properties is Rs 107.73 crore. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said in a statement that the firm and its directors Ram Prasad Agarwal, Narayan Prasad Agarwal, Pawan Kumar Agarwal and Saurabh Jhunjhunwala and others were booked by it after studying a CBI charge sheet filed against them for "defrauding" a UCO Bank flagship corporate branch in Kolkata.

The probe found that Fairdeal Supplies Ltd and its directors availed various credit facilities and foreign letters of credit (FLCs) from UCO Bank "fraudulently" by submitting inflated and fabricated stock statements, the ED alleged. It said the company "did not route the sale proceeds of coal imported under the FLCs through the bank, resulting in accumulation of letters of credit."

"The funds were diverted for other purposes, thereby defrauding the bank to the tune of Rs 231.95 crore," the ED said. Directors of the company "directed" buyers of coal to remit sale proceeds of the imported coal to other accounts, it said.

"The buyers of coal deposited the sale proceeds in the accounts other than accounts of Fairdeal Supplies Ltd. From these accounts, the funds were further diverted to acquire assets," the agency charged. Probe in the case is ongoing, it added.

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