Bhushan Power and Steel bank fraud case: ED attaches Rs 190-cr residential building in Mumbai

Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached a residential building worth Rs 190.62 crore in Mumbai in an ongoing investigation against Sanjay Singal, ex-CMD of Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd (BPSL) and others in a money laundering case involving Rs 47,204 crore bank fraud case.

Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached a residential building worth Rs 190.62 crore in Mumbai in an ongoing investigation against Sanjay Singal, ex-CMD of Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd (BPSL) and others in a money laundering case involving Rs 47,204 crore bank fraud case. The building is located at Ceejay House Worli opposite Ultra Mall, Poonam Chambers, Mumbai.

The federal agency's action comes under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in the money laundering case which it started probing on the basis of the First Information Report (FIR) filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on April 5, 2019. The CBI had filed its FIR under the sections of Indian Penal Code, Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 against BPSL and others for a criminal conspiracy amongst themselves and with unknown public servants of banks and others to cheat banks.

In furtherance of the criminal conspiracy, the ED said, the accused dishonestly and fraudulently diverted huge amount of bank funds through companies, shell companies and entities, and deliberately defaulted in repayment of bank loans and also claimed "inadmissible Cenvat credit". "They did not use the bank funds for the purpose for which the same were sanctioned, committed forgery for the purpose of cheating, used forged documents and falsified the accounts causing wrongful loss to the lending banks and corresponding wrongful gain to themselves," said the ED.

It was also alleged in the CBI FIR that BPSL had availed various credit facilities from 33 different banks and financial institutions and the outstanding defaulted amount as on January 30, 2018, was Rs 47,204 crore. BPSL and its directors are accused of deliberately defaulting in repayment of loan amounts to lender banks and financial institutions as per the time schedule and their accounts remained continuously irregular.

Subsequently, Punjab National Bank (PNB) declared the account of BPSL as Non-Performing Asset (NPA) on December 31, 2015, followed by the other banks and financial institutions. ED's money-maundering investigations has revealed that the funds that were utilised for purchase of this property by Assurity Real Estate LLP were siphoned from BPSL and routed through shell companies projecting the same as unsecured loans.

"It has been established that the so-called unsecured loans were without any documentation and repayment obligations," said the ED. Earlier, a prosecution complaint had also been filed by the ED in the impugned case against 25 accused and assets totaling Rs 4,229.54 crores have already been attached, thus bringing the total attached proceeds of crime to Rs 4,420.16 crore. (ANI)

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