Director of IL&FS arm arrested in Rs 100-crore fraud case

NEW DELHI: The managing director of IL&FS Transportation Network Ltd has been arrested in an alleged case of cheating and forgery of around Rs 100 crore, which was amassed on the pretext of investment and stake in the company’s Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for Gurugram Rapid Metro project.
The directors of the firm allegedly duped the director of another firm, Enso Infrastructures, by offering a 15% stake in the project in lieu of investment of around Rs 170 crore. However, the funds were allegedly siphoned off through bogus bills and invoices to inflate expenses and the stake was never delivered, said additional commissioner (EOW) RK Singh.
The accused, Ramchand Karunakaran, was arrested based on an FIR lodged in 2018 under IPC sections of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery.
The complainant, Ashish Begwani of Enso Infrastructures, had alleged that he was approached by officials of IL&FS, including Karunakaran, for investment in August 2010. “Enso Infrastructures agreed to invest Rs 170 crore for a 15% stake in IL&FS Rail Ltd, the SPV for Gurugram Rapid Metro project. However, over a period of time, the complainant observed that the company was not profitable and funds were being misused,” Singh said.
It was further alleged that bogus contract orders worth Rs 21.9 crore were issued to Silverpoint Infratech Ltd, but no work was executed by this company. “The invoices raised by Silverpoint were fabricated. IL&FS Rail Ltd did it to inflate its expenditure and show less profit in its books. The complainant claimed that the directors of IL&FS and other officials siphoned off over Rs 70 crore, thereby causing a loss to his company,” said a senior officer.
During investigation, a team led by ACP Virender Sejwan found that the accused had made payments to several companies without any work being executed by them. “The accused could not give a satisfactory reply about the contracts awarded to such companies. No estimate was taken, no name and address of any contractor was kept on record and there was no explanation for the end use of the money. Money was routed through several shell companies,” said Singh.
Karunakaran had applied for anticipatory bail, which was cancelled in December last year. He was tracked down in Mumbai, produced before a court and taken on transit remand and interrogation. He told police that he joined IL&FS as vice-president in 1994 and was appointed managing director in 2008. He was also one the directors in IL&FS Rail Ltd.