Syndicate Bank fraud case: Chartered Accountant's Rs 56 cr assets attached

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, Shankar Lal Khandelwal and their other associates in Syndicate Bank fraud case amounting to Rs 1,267.79 crore, the agency said on Monday.

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.

An investigation by the ED revealed that proceeds of crime money generated out of the fraud were transferred by Bharat Bomb to various bank accounts operated and controlled by him, through a complex maze of transactions for placement, layering, and integration of the tainted funds. The ED said that Bharat Bomb invested these tainted funds in immovable properties in the name of himself, his family members, associates, employees, tribal persons, fictitious firms, and companies.

Earlier during the investigation in the matter, the ED had so far issued four provisional attachment orders towards cumulative attachment of assets worth Rs 478.66 crore. Additionally, a seizure of Rs 2.25 crore in the form of a Demand Draft was also carried out. With the present attachment the total attachment in the case stands at Rs 537.72 crore approximately, the ED added.

(With agency inputs)