ED launches money laundering probe against Bhushan Steel CMD

On Saturday, the Enforcement Directorate told the media that it has attached a building of more than Rs 190 crore in Mumbai as part of a money-laundering probe connected to an alleged bank fraud case against Sanjay Singal, former Bhushan Power and Steel Limited CMD. The residential asset worth Rs 190.62 crore is at Ceejay House in Worli, opposite Ultra Mall, Poonam Chambers. In a statement, it said that the funds that were used for the acquisition of this property by Assurity Real Estate LLP were siphoned from BPSL and routed via shell firms projecting the same as unsecured loans. The agency said that it has been confirmed that the so-called unsecured loans were without any documentation and repayment debts. The ED money laundering case was filed against Singal and others based on a CBI FIR filed in April 2019. The agency alleged a criminal conspiracy was planned to dishonestly and fraudulently divert a huge amount of bank funds through firms or shell companies and other entities, and loan amount repayment intentionally defaulted and inadmissible Cenvat credit was also alleged. They did not utilise the bank funds for the purpose for which the same were approved, committed forgery for the purpose of cheating, used falsified documents, and forged the accounts, creating wrongful loss to the government exchequer, financial organisations, lending banks and corresponding wrongful gain to themselves. It was claimed in the CBI FIR that BPSL availed several credit facilities from 33 financial institutions or different banks, and the outstanding defaulted amount was Rs 47,204 crore as of 30 January 2018. BPSL and its directors knowingly defaulted in loan repayment to lender banks/financial organisations according to the schedule, and their accounts remained continuously irregular, it claimed. Subsequently, it said that the lead bank in the consortium, the Punjab National Bank (PNB), announced the BPSL account as NPA (non-performing asset) on 31st December 2015, accompanied by the other banks/financial institutions. In November 2019, Singal was arrested by the ED, and the agency later attached assets of more than Rs 4,420 crore and filed a charge sheet before a court in this case. Image SourceAlso read: ED links assets worth Rs 81 cr against Unitech Group in PLMA case Also read: ED raids TRS Nama Nageswara Rao’s residence in Rs 1,064 cr fraud case