ED attaches Rs 33.84-crore property in bank fraud case

ibune News Service

Chandigarh, September 25

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached assets of the accused, worth Rs 33.84 crore, in a case of Rs 299-crore buyers’ credit fraud in Indian Overseas Bank, Chandigarh.

According to ED officials, residential township at Kandaghat, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, built by M/s Prithvi Infradevelopers Pvt Ltd, factory land, building and plant and machinery of M/s Geoxa Steels Pvt Ltd in Ludhiana and various residential and commercial properties belonging to accused Amanpreet Singh Sodhi, his wife Sarabjit Kaur and other members of their family and associates have been attached.

A house at Sector 10 here of M/s Trade Hub India Pvt Ltd, owned by accused Ashu Mehra and plots owned by accused Gaurav Kirpal, his wife Bhawna Kirpal and his other family members in Punjab have also been attached by the ED.

The ED has initiated an investigation under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), on the basis of an FIR registered by the CBI (BS & FC), New Delhi, against Ashu Mehra, Assistant Manager, Indian Overseas Bank, Sector 7, Chandigarh, three Indian importer applicants — Amanpreet Singh Sodhi’s M/s Heights International, Dinesh Kumar’s M/s Vision Procon and Gaurav and Aman Kirpal’s M/s Saibhakti Impex Pvt Ltd. The ED sleuths stated that Ashu Mehra had issued 15 fraudulent buyers credit / letters of understanding (LOUs) in the name of the applicant importer firms resulting in creation of liability to the tune of Rs 321 crore on the Indian Overseas bank.

The said fraudulent LOUs were also alleged to have been issued without the approval of competent authority in the bank and also that there was no underlying import of goods for the same.