The Enforcement Directorate has registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against a Ghaziabad-based sugar refinery and its directors for allegedly cheating the Oriental Bank of Commerce of Rs 109 crore, PTI reported on Thursday.
The agency filed a case against Simbhaoli Sugars Limited after conducting raids in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur and Noida cities on Wednesday, said officials. “Some documents have been recovered and seized by the sleuths during the raids,” a senior official told PTI. “Financial details about the company and its officials have also been obtained by the ED from various banks.”
The Enforcement Directorate’s action comes days after the Central Bureau of Investigation named 13 officials of the sugar refinery, including chairperson Gurmit Singh Mann and deputy managing director Gurpal Singh who is also Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s son-in-law, in its First Information Report. Gurpal Singh was questioned by the CBI on Thursday.
According to the CBI, the bank gave Simbhaoli Sugars Limited a Rs 148-crore loan to finance 5,200 sugarcane farmers in 2011. The company got the money between January and March 2012, but it never reached the farmers, the CBI said. It was, instead, allegedly diverted to a company account.
The account was declared a non-performing asset in March 2015, and the bank said in June 2015 that the company had defrauded it of Rs 97.85 crore.
However, just months earlier, the bank had granted the company another loan of Rs 110 crore under a deal to pay back the earlier loan. The new loan, too, was declared a non-performing asset in November 2016. The bank was allegedly cheated of Rs 97.85 crore but it has claimed that it incurred a loss of Rs 109.85 crore, the CBI said.
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