Loan fraud: ED seizes Rs 100-cr worth assets

New Delhi: The ED on Thursday said it has attached assets worth Rs 100 crore of a "habitual offender", who took new loans to repay old ones, and is being probed for money laundering linked to alleged fraud against an IDBI branch in Andhra Pradesh.

Agricultural lands, fish ponds, commercial sites, plots and flats of Rebba Satyanarayana located in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have been provisionally attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said in a statement.

Satyanarayana and his family members are accused of "fraudulently availing KCC (Kisan Credit Card Scheme) fish tank loans in the names of 143 benami borrowers from IDBI Bank, Rajahmundry branch, to the tune of Rs 112.41 crore".

He was first booked for these charges by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) following which the ED took cognisance of the case.

The ED said Satyanarayana "was the aggregator and end beneficiary of all the KCC loans sanctioned to the borrowers and he conspired with the officials of the IDBI Bank and others to avail loans in the name of his family members, relatives and acquaintances."

These loans, the federal investigation agency said, were firstly transferred to the borrowers' savings accounts -- opened by Satyanarayana -- and later, most of the said loan amount was withdrawn in cash.

The cash was handed over to the accused, which Satynarayana utilised for various purposes like "repayment" of earlier loans availed by entities in his, relatives and benami names, but controlled by him, it said. The ED said the accused also used the loan funds to allegedly purchase properties in his name, in the name of his relatives as well as in benami names and made investments in his export-import businesses.