The Enforcement Directorate has attached assets worth ₹1,122 crore in connection with allegations that Vadodara-based Diamond Power Infrastructure Limited (DPIL) and its directors cheated 11 banks of ₹2,654 crore.
The attachment has been made in the money-laundering case registered following an FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation earlier this month. Those named as accused are the company, its promoter S.N. Bhatnagar and his two sons Amit Bhatnagar and Sumit Bhatnagar, who are the managing director and joint managing director of the company respectively. The company manufactures cables and other electrical equipment.
“We have attached the properties of the company and its director. More assets are being identified for initiating action,” said an official.
The CBI, which also got look-out circulars issued against the directors, has alleged that DPIL, through its management, fraudulently availed of loan facilities from a consortium of 11 public and private banks since 2008. They were sanctioned term loans and credit facilities despite them being in the Reserve Bank of India’s defaulters list and the ECGC caution list when the initial sanction of credit limits was given by the consortium, it is alleged.
Axis Bank was the lead bank for the term loan when the consortium was set up in 2008, while the Bank of India was the lead bank for cash credit limits.
DPIL projected inflated projected turnovers in its report to the banks, which never materialised. However, the Bank of India officials did not reduce its cash credit limit to the company, the CBI has alleged.
Besides, the company had also been submitting false stock records to the lead bank to secure more credit drawing power. The credit limits were allegedly used for issuance of Letter of Credits, many of which were not honoured by DPIL and were, therefore, charged on the credit limit.
