New Delhi: The ED on Thursday said it has attached dockyards, agricultural lands, commercial properties and bank deposits worth more than Rs 2,747 crore as part of an alleged bank loan fraud linked money laundering investigation against ABG Shipyard Ltd, its group companies and linked entities.
The seized properties include shipyards located at Surat and Dahej in Gujarat, agricultural lands and plots, various commercial and residential premises in Gujarat and Maharashtra and bank accounts owned by ABG Shipyard Ltd., its group companies and other related entities, the federal agency said in a statement.
The total value of the provisionally attached assets, under the Prevention of Money Laundering (Act), is Rs 2,747.69 crore.
The ED action comes a day after the CBI arrested the founder of the company Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal.
Probe found that the ABG Shipyard Ltd. and its Chairman & Managing Director Agarwal availed various credit facilities/loans from consortium of Banks led by the ICICI Bank, Mumbai on pretext of meeting its capital requirements and other business expenses, the ED said.
However, it said, ABG Shipyard Ltd. "misappropriated" the credit facilities availed from the consortium and "diverted" the funds for the purposes other than its actual cause in the garb of various loans/advances/investments etc. to various related entities incorporated in India and abroad.
These alleged illegal transactions eventually caused "monetary loss" to the tune of Rs 22,842 crore to the banks consortium.