Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday seized gold and diamond jewellery worth Rs 4.43 crores during search operations at the residential premises of Chairman and Managing Director of Messrs Cethar Limited and Director of Messrs NSK Builders Private Limited in Trichy.
As per an official statement, the searches were conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) at the residential premises of M/s. Cethar Limited's Chairman K Subbaraj, and Managing Director K Pothiraj, and Director of M/s. NSK Builders Private Limited, NSK Kalairaja.
"ED initiated an investigation under PMLA on the basis of FIR registered by Central Bureau of Investigation, BS and FC, Bangalore under section 420, 471 and 120(B) of IPC against M/s Cethar Ltd, Trichy, and others for availing credit facilities to the tune of Rs 1340 Crores and systematically committing fraud upon and cheating the Indian Bank and other Banks under the Consortium,' the statement said.
It added that the investigation by ED revealed that a huge part of the loan amount sanctioned by Indian Bank and the consortium of banks as working capital was siphoned off and diverted by M/s Cethar Ltd. and its Chairman and its Managing Director to their subsidiaries, family members, and various compes as bad debts.
"It also revealed that substantial part of the loan money was transferred to M/s NSK Builders Pvt. Ltd. in the guise of constructions," it stated further.
ED said that during the course of the search, the investigation agency seized gold and diamond jewellery worth Rs1.77 Crores along with several property documents from the residence of K Subbaraj, and certain property documents, incriminating pieces of evidence, and digital pieces of evidence were also seized from the other premises.
"Further gold and diamond jewellery worth Rs 2.3 crores belonging to K Subbaraj and Rs35 lakh belonging to K Pothiraj from 6 bank lockers identified during the search of the residential premises have been seized under PMLA," it said further.
The investigation agency added that further investigations in the case are in progress.
( With inputs from ANI )
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