The Enforcement Directorate has provisionally attached ₹10.5 crore of assets comprising bank balances, investments in shares and 15 flats in Kolkata in connection with a bank fraud case.
The accused persons are alleged to have cheated more than 15 banks in Kolkata and Howrah by mortgaging the same properties multiple times by forging property deeds.
The attachment has been made under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a case against Madan Chand Jain, Gaurav Jain, who were directors of Bhagwati Lifestyle Private Limited, and others.
The ED probe is based on the chargesheets filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation. The CBI had alleged that the Jains, as directors of the company, took a loan of ₹35 crore from the State Bank of India in 2012 using forged deeds.
The accused persons are alleged to have opened 13 to 15 showrooms in different parts of eastern India under the brand name of Bhagwati Life Style. After running the showrooms for about two years the entire funds were siphoned of by diverting them to fake accounts and withdrawing them in cash, the ED said in a statement.
The ED asserts that its probe revealed that the Jains used fake identities, like Madan Chand Surana, Gaurav Kumar Surana, Vishal Kothari, Shiveik Jain and Hemant Kochar, to cheat the banks, in conspiracy with their friends and employees. Some of the associates have allegedly been identified as Dilip Banik, Sunil Chaudhary, Alok Garodia and Ramesh Upadhyay.
Gaurav Jain, along with his father, is alleged to have created multiple fake identities and obtained a number of PAN cards, driving licences and Voter ID cards, to open more than 100 bank accounts, either in the name of individuals or fake firms.
Based on the fake identities, “multiple copies of property deeds were created by the accused for the purpose of mortgaging them with the banks and taking loan”, the ED asserted.
