Gujarat bank fraud: Assets worth Rs 1,122 crore of Bhatnagars attached, says ED
Suresh Bhatnagar and his sons are in CBI custody Suresh Bhatnagar and his sons are in CBI custody
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said that it has attached assets worth Rs 1,122 crore belonging to Vadodara-based businessmen Suresh Bhatnagar and his two sons — Sumit and Amit — in connection with the alleged bank fraud case worth Rs 2,654 crore. The father-son trio, who were arrested on the night of April 17 from a hotel in Udaipur, Rajasthan, is currently in the CBI’s custody.
An ED release said that properties of Diamond Power Transformer Ltd (DPIL) and its related companies — Diamond Projects Ltd, Mayfair Leisures and Northway Spaces — have been attached by the agency.
The attached properties include “a plant, machinery, building and land of DPIL and DPTL in Vadodara, three windmills in Bhuj, residential bungalows/flats of the Bhatnagar family, unsold flats of Northway Spaces, under construction Hotel of Mayfair Leisures and other land parcels held by related companies — all located in Vadodara.
After the CBI filed an FIR on March 26, the ED also filed a complaint against the Bhatnagars and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED had carried out searches on the premises owned by the Bhatnagars earlier this month.
According to the ED, DPIL is involved in “circuitous transactions of huge amounts (of money) with various parties including its related parties by issuing fake invoices without any actual sale/purchase of goods”. “This was done with dual intention of availing CENVAT credit fraudulently as well as projecting increased turnover before the banks in their financial records,” the agency added.
It has been alleged that the DPIL promoters “showed fake/fictitious entries of receivables in their books of accounts of around Rs 1,000 crore from their debtors, and on the basis of such books of account, the DPIL continued to get credit from the banks”. On investigation, it was found that most of these figures were exaggerated.
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