Bank loan fraud: ED arrests MD of Mumbai-based agro company

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday said it has arrested the managing director of a Mumbai-based agro company in a money-laundering probe linked to alleged multi-crore bank fraud.

Vinod Chaturvedi, MD of Usher Agro Limited and other group companies, was arrested on September 17 in a case of ''cheating and siphoning off bank loans.'' The MD was non-cooperative and did not divulge any information during questioning, the ED claimed.

The agency said in a statement that a special Prevention of Money Laundering court in Mumbai on September 18 sent him to five days of ED custody.

The PMLA case against Chaturvedi, his firm, and a person identified as Manoj Pathak is based on a CBI FIR where it was alleged that ''the group has taken loan from a consortium of banks and siphoned off the same.'' ''Proceeds of crime have been identified and quantified to the tune of Rs 915.65 crore in this case. The promoters formed 15 shell companies and carried out bogus transactions,'' the ED alleged.

The group companies also carried out ''bogus'' transactions with the Dewan Housing Finance Corporation group companies.

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