The Enforcement Directorate on Monday attached assets worth Rs 80.65 crore belonging to Telangana Rashtra Samithi MP Nama Nageshwar Rao in a money laundering case.

The matter pertains to the alleged diversion of funds by Ranchi Expressway Limited, a company formed by Rao’s Madhucon Group.

The company came into existence after Madhucon Group was handed a project by the National Highways Authority of India in 2011 to build a highway on the Ranchi-Rargaon-Jamshedpur route, according to The Indian Express.

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According to the Enforcement Directorate, the group took a loan of about Rs 1,030 crore from a consortium of banks led by Canara Bank for completing the project. Rao was named as the personal guarantor.

The investigating agency claimed that Madhucon Group failed to utilise the entire loan amount and diverted a part of the money to its associated entities for other works and also directly “siphoned off” the amount by giving bogus works to its related shell entities.

The company also failed to repay the loan, the Enforcement Directorate has alleged.

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Subsequently, a case was registered against the directors of Ranchi Expressway Limited by the Central Bureau of Investigation in 2019. Based on the CBI complaint, the Enforcement Directorate started its own investigation to probe the financial aspect of the case.

In July, the Enforcement Directorate had provisionally attached 105 immovable properties and other assets worth Rs 73.74 crore belonging to Madhucon Group and its directors and promoters, including Rao, according to PTI.

“The work on the ground suffered and they could not complete the [highway] project despite drawing the entire loan amount,” the Enforcement Directorate had said at the time. “They also managed the maintenance reports and work progress reports to falsely claim higher expenses.”