The Enforcement Directorate has attached assets worth ₹33.71 crore in connection with a money-laundering case against Era Infra Engineering Limited (EIEL) and others for alleged bank fraud .
The properties include two tunnel machines valued at ₹18.31 crore and ₹15.40 crore, which are owned by the company. The ED probe is based on a case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation in April 2018 against EIEL, its then chairman-cum-managing director, Hem Singh Bharana, and unknown bank officials.
The agency alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, use of forged documents and criminal misconduct by the accused persons in the sanction, disbursement and use of two term loans amounting to ₹650 crore.
According to the ED, the funds were used for unstated and unsanctioned purposes. Of the ₹450 crore disbursed by UCO Bank, ₹211 crore and ₹25 crore were allegedly diverted.
“Further, ₹14.70 crore was diverted from the other sanctioned amount of ₹200 crore and thus, the total amount diverted by EIEL in this manner comes to ₹250.70 crore, which qualifies as ‘proceeds of crime’ under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act,” said the agency.
In the same case, the agency had earlier attached assets worth ₹5.72 crore and the order was confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority under the PMLA. With the latest order, the total value of attachment so far stands at ₹39.43 crore. The ED is yet to identify other assets linked to the accused persons for further action.
