The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached immovable and movable properties valued at Rs 56.81 crore belonging to Rajasthan's Udaipur-based Chartered Accountant Bharat Bomb and his associate Shankar Lal Khandelwal in Syndicate Bank fraud case amounting to Rs 1,267.79 crore, the agency said on Monday.
The attached properties are in the form of agricultural land, plots, shops, offices, flats, Fixed Deposits, and bank accounts. These properties were attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The ED initiated a money-laundering investigation on the basis of the First Information Report (FIR) registered and the charge sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation against the officials of the erstwhile Syndicate Bank (now Canara Bank) and others.
During the investigation, the ED said that it was revealed that from 2011 to 2016, main fraudster Bharat Bomb in collusion with the bank officials defrauded erstwhile Syndicate Bank to the tune of Rs 1,267.79 crore. "The modus operandi of the fraudsters included getting loans sanctioned in their name or in the name of family members and fake cheque discounting purported to be issued by the shell companies controlled by Bharat Bomb. The loans were never repaid by the fraudsters," said the ED.