Gurugram-based Ambience group promoter arrested for bank loan fraud

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 29

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today arrested promoter of the Gurugram-based Ambience group Raj Singh Gehlot under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with a bank loan fraud of Rs 800 crore, officials in the agency said.

Rs800 crore siphoned off

The ED in its probe has found that “a huge part of the loan amount of more than Rs800 crore, which was sanctioned by a consortium of banks for a hotel project, was siphoned off by Aman Hospitality Private Limited, Raj Singh Gehlot and his associates through a web of companies owned and controlled by them”.

The officials said Gehlot would soon be produced before a special court here in the national capital and the agency would seek custody of the arrested accused.

Earlier, the ED sleuths had raided Gehlot’s premises including his company Aman Hospitality Private Limited (AHPL) and also a few other firms of the Ambience group.

Besides, the agency had also raided the premises of director in the company Dayanand Singh, Mohan Singh Gehlot and their associates in July last year.

The officials said the PMLA case against Gehlot, who is also a promoter of the Ambience Mall in Gurugram, is based on a 2019 FIR of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Jammu against AHPL and its directors for alleged money laundering in the construction and development of the five-star Leela Ambience Convention Hotel located at 1, CBD, Maharaj Surajmal Road, near the Yamuna Sports Complex in Delhi.

The ED in its probe has found that “a huge part of the loan amount of more than Rs 800 crore, which was sanctioned by a consortium of banks for the hotel project, was siphoned off by AHPL, Raj Singh Gehlot and his associates through a web of companies owned and controlled by them”.

“A substantial part of the loan money was transferred by AHPL to several companies and individuals on the pretext of payment of running bills and advance for supply of material and work executed,” the ED has alleged in the FIR.

The employees of the Ambience group and Gehlot’s associates were made directors and proprietors in these companies and Gehlot was the “authorised signatory” in many of these entities, it had said.

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