The Enforcement Directorate has conducted searches in connection with alleged siphoning and diversion of loan funds amounting to ₹605 crore by Shree Bankey Bihari Exports Limited (SBBEL).
The premises of Amar Chand Gupta, Ram Laal Gupta, Raj Kumar Gupta and other family members have been searched by the agency’s Delhi zonal unit. The money laundering probe is based on an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation against SBBEL and its directors.
According to the ED, SBBEL diverted the loan funds through its sister units and also by employing the modus operandi of showing bogus and fictitious sale/purchase transactions. “The primary security had also been disposed of by it without depositing the sale proceeds in the loan account,” it said.
The books of accounts were hidden in various business premises of the Guptas. “During the searches, various incriminating documents, laptops, mobile phones and digital storage devices, indicating a number of entities controlled by them to facilitate money laundering, have been found,” said the ED.
The agency is conducting investigations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act on the basis of two more FIRs instituted by the CBI against the two other group companies for alleged bank fraud of ₹100 crore each. Therefore, the total amount of “proceeds of crime” is ₹805 crore, it said.
