ED attaches Rs 10-crore assets under PMLA in bank fraud case

The Enforcement Directorate has attached six flats worth Rs 10 crore belonging to the Director of a Kolkata-based firm in connection with a money laundering probe in an alleged bank fraud case.

The agency said it issued a provisional order attaching four flats in Kolkata and two in Gurugram in the name of "Bipin Kumar Vohra, one of the Directors Ms Bengal India Global Infrastructure Limited Kolkata, in a case of money laundering".

It said while the book value of the assets (flats) is Rs 2.73 crore, their "market value" is Rs 10 crore. The ED had booked a case against the firm and its executives based on a CBI FIR. The FIR was filed by the CBI after it had taken cognisance of a compliant by a consortium of banks against the firm and others. "According to CBI FIRs, the firm and others caused a loss of Rs 139.05 crore to Central Bank of India and Rs 48.2 crore to Andhra bank, a loss of Rs 74.98 crore was caused by another group company Ms SPS Steels Rolling Mills Limited and others to United Bank of India," the ED said in a statement.

It added the "company Ms Bengal India Global Infrastructure Limited represented by its directors availed various credit facilities for trading purpose during 2012-13 and diverted the funds through various front/sister companies for other purposes violating the terms and conditions stipulated in the sanction orders thereby causing loss to the lenders."