Did Gujarat's ED Charge Hellious Tubealloys with Rs 28.54 Crore Bank Fraud?
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Ahmedabad, Feb 13 (NationPress) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has submitted a charge sheet against Hellious Tubealloys Private Limited (HTPL) and its directors regarding an alleged bank fraud amounting to Rs 28.54 crore involving the Bank of Baroda, as confirmed by the central agency on Friday.
This complaint was lodged by the Ahmedabad Zonal Office under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, following an investigation prompted by an FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)'s Anti-Corruption Branch in Gandhinagar.
The FIR addresses violations under Sections 120-B and 420 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, along with Section 13(2) read with 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The case was initiated from a complaint by the Deputy General Manager of the Bank of Baroda's Ahmedabad Region against HTPL and its directors, Shantilal Sanghvi and Mahesh Sanghvi, for allegedly defrauding the bank.
According to the ED, its investigation has uncovered that HTPL received credit facilities totaling Rs 29.67 crore from the bank.
Out of this, approximately Rs 14 crore was allegedly misappropriated and sent to a related entity, SLS Stainless Private Limited, without any legitimate business transactions.
The central agency has also accused the company of issuing fraudulent Letter of Credits to secure loan funds and submitting falsified stock statements and accounting records with deceitful intentions.
Furthermore, HTPL is charged with obtaining a bank guarantee of about Rs 4.50 crore and misusing the residual loan amount for term loan repayments, charges, and taxes, leading to a wrongful loss of Rs 28.54 crore to the bank.
As part of its recovery efforts, the bank has retrieved Rs 5.64 crore through the auction of mortgaged assets and other recovery strategies, as stated by the central agency.
During the investigation, the ED executed search operations at various locations and confiscated incriminating documents.
The CBI's Anti-Corruption Branch in Gandhinagar filed a charge sheet related to this case on December 28, 2021.
Based on its findings, the ED has issued a provisional attachment order for immovable properties valued at Rs 19.37 crore.
Further investigations are currently ongoing.