ED conducts raids in Maha in connection with loan fraud linked to politician

New Delhi: The ED on Thursday conducted searches at multiple locations in Maharashtra in connection with an alleged multi-crore loan fraud perpetrated in the name of farmers and purportedly aided by firms linked to a politician, officials said.

The agency raided nine locations in Mumbai and Parbhani district in Maharashtra as part of a criminal case filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.

The searches are being carried out in the case related to Ratnakar Gutte, a promoter of the Gangakhed Sugar and Energy Pvt Ltd (GSEPL), they said. Gutta is also the father of Vijay Gutte, director of the controversial film, The Accidental Prime Minister.

The agency is working to obtain detail evidence as part of the action, they said.

The ED's case comes as a result of an FIR registered by Mumbai Police against Gutte's GSEPL, its Chairman, Directors, others.

Local police had alleged that the company through Gutte and its employees had forged photographs and loan documents of nearly 10,000 farmers to avail crop loans in their names fraudulently, the agency said.

The probe agency went on to allege that Gutte had then conspired to siphon off Rs 328 crore of these loans availed from lenders such as Andhra Bank, United Bank of India, Bank of India, Syndicate Bank, and RBL Bank into accounts of 23 different concerns of theirs.

The Enforcement Directorate alleged that GSEPL would forge documents to receive these "crop loans" in bogus savings accounts, created in connivance with some bank officials and employees at the concerned banks.

The ED has further alleged that when the loan amounts were sanctioned and deposited into these accounts, officials of GSEPL transferred all of the money to the company's current account on the same day.

The Nationalist Congress Party had last year alleged that firms linked to Gutte had secured loans worth over Rs 5,400 crore on fake documents made in the name of farmers. "In 2015, Gangakhed Sugar Factory procured bank loans in the names of more than 600 farmers under the 'Harvest and Transport scheme'.

"These farmers are now getting bank notices for loan amounts some of which are as high as Rs 25 lakh," Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde had claimed. The probe agency said that further investigation in the case is ongoing.

With PTI inputs