‘Bank fraud’: ED files prosecution complaint against Vadodara company

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday filed a prosecution complaint against Vadodara-based Diamond Power Infrastructure Limited (DPIL) and its directors Amit Bhatnagar, Sumit Bhatnagar, Suresh Bhatnagar and 11 others before the special court in Ahmedabad for allegedly defrauding a consortium of 11 banks to the tune of Rs 2,654 crore.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday filed a prosecution complaint against Vadodara-based Diamond Power Infrastructure Limited (DPIL) and its directors Amit Bhatnagar, Sumit Bhatnagar, Suresh Bhatnagar and 11 others before the special court in Ahmedabad for allegedly defrauding a consortium of 11 banks to the tune of Rs 2,654 crore.

On April 24, the ED had already attached DPIL’s immovable assets to the tune of Rs 1,122.72 crore. In the prosecution complaint filed on Thursday, a prayer has been made under Section 4 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, for confiscation of attached assets and punishment for the directors of DPIL, and other accused persons.

Investigations against DPIL and others were initiated after an FIR was filed in March by the CBI, Gandhinagar, stating that DPIL engaged in manufacturing cables and other electrical equipment, and “fraudulently availed credit facilities from a consortium of 11 banks (public sector and private sector) since 2008, leaving behind an outstanding debit of Rs 2,654.40 crore as on 29.06.2016.”

The FIR had further stated that the firm got the term loan and credit facilities despite the fact that “they were already appearing in the RBI’s defaulters list at the time of initial sanction of credit limits by the consortium”.

The investigation by the ED has revealed that DPIL had availed term loans/ working capital loans, external commercial borrowings and non-convertible debentures from a consortium of 19 banks and institutions. It was also found that DPIL had allegedly misused the facility of letters of credit issued by their banks for payments of about Rs 1,222.74 crore against fake/paper purchases made from Archon Engicon Ltd, Accord Industries Ltd, Jindal Aluminium Foils pvt Ltd, Ruby Cables Ltd. The ED filed a 2,100-page chargesheet against the accused.

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