Bank fraud: ED attaches Rs288cr assets of Himachal firm

The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday said it has attached assets worth over Rs 288 crore of a Himachal Pradesh-based company and its promoters in connection with multi-crore bank fraud and money laundering case.

It said a provisional order for attachment of land, building, plant and machinery of Indian Technomac Company Limited located at Paonta Sahib in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh, agricultural land owned by its promoter Rakesh Kumar Sharma in Delhi's Mehrauli and agricultural land in the name of its director Vinay Kumar Sharma at Rampur Majri and Bharapur in Paonta Sahib district, has been issued.

The total value of the attached assets, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), is Rs 288.91 crore.

The ED filed a criminal case of money laundering against the firm and its promoters based on multiple FIRs filed by the state police.

"The company was sanctioned term loan of Rs 289.66 crore and working capital limits of Rs 1,335 crore by a consortium of banks led by Bank of India.

"The account gradually started slipping into NPA due to non-servicing of interest, installment, devolvement of bills under Letter of Credits (LCs). The account was later on classified as NPA in books of accounts of the banks," the central agency said in a statement.

Probe found, the ED said, that Rakesh Kumar Sharma and his associates, employees and internal and statutory auditors "fraudulently" showed huge rise in the company's growth by inflating the balance sheets in order to induce banks to sanction more loan facilities.

"The balance sheets were inflated by forging sale and purchase bills. There was no real increase in actual turnover of the company. The loan amount so obtained was diverted to various shell companies."

"The funds in shell companies were further siphoned off for personal and non-mandated purposes such as buying immovable assets among others," it said.

Probe in the case is ongoing, it said.