ED attaches 42 properties, 7 cars worth Rs 18.50 cr in Punjab and HP in Bank Fraud Case

LUDHIANA: In a big action undertaken by the Zonal office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Jalandhar, 42 properties in Punjab & Himachal Pradesh and 7 cars of a Phagwara based businessman have been attached in case of Rs. 21.31 crore bank fraud committed by him.
Attached properties include 20 residential plots, 6 industrial plots, 1 house, 3 agricultural land, 2 brick kilns and 10 commercial plots of worth Rs 18,17,03,627/- situated in (Phagwara) Kapurthala and (Banga) Nawanshahar districts of Punjab and in (Amb) Una district of Himachal Pradesh. Further, 7 movable properties (such as Tata Safari, Honda Jazz, Skoda Octavia) worth of Rs 32,97,000/- too have been attached by ED.
Meanwhile giving further information into the case a topmost official in ED informed , “Department has attached assets of Vikram Seth & his family members which are worth Rs. 18.50 Crores in the Bank of Baroda fraud case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Earlier, CBI, ACB, Chandigarh had registered an FIR against Seth and others under sections 120-B, 420, 467, 468, 471 of IPC and section 13(1)(d) r/w 13(2) of PC Act on the allegations of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery of valuable security for the purpose of cheating and use of forged documents as genuine. During its investigation, CBI had found that Seth and his family members and associates in connivance with other accused and other officials of Bank of Baroda got 19 loans sanctioned from Bank of Baroda, GT Road, Phagwara. Further, numerous short-comings were noticed by the CBI in the sanctioning of aforesaid 19 loans, which resulted into fraud of Rs. 21.31 Crores and thereby causing loss to Bank of Baroda. The loan amounts were routed through accounts of various associated firms/companies and other fraudulent firms by the accused persons through a web of transactions and ultimately the amounts were siphoned off”
Official also added, “Upon that basis, the Zonal office, Jalandhar registered a case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 against Vikram Seth and others and started investigating into sources of assets acquired by the accused in their names and in the name of their family members. During the course of investigation, the ED investigated the money trail upto multiple layers to trace the proceeds of crime. Further, it was found that Vikram Seth had invested the money into movable and immovable properties in the name of his family members, source of which were not found legitimate during the course of investigation. In due course it was also ascertained that money was found diverted from loan accounts and parked into immovable and movable assets. ED investigated many bank accounts upto multiple layers to trace the proceeds of crime and found that 42 immovable properties and 7 movable properties worth over Rs. 18.50 crores were also purchased by proceeds of crime. Thus, ED has attached these that were derived / obtained directly or indirectly by Vikram Seth and his family members as a result of availing bank loans from Bank of Baroda, Phagwara through cheating, forgery and using forged documents as genuine”