Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday arrested V. Hima Bindu, MD of M/s VMCSL, for indulging in money laundering and causing a loss of around ₹3,316 crore to a consortium of public sector banks.
ED initiated money laundering investigation on the basis of FIR filed by CBI against M/S VMCSL. M/s VMCSL had taken loans from a consortium of banks and the present dues outstanding to all the banks is worth ₹3,316 crore. Forensic audit revealed that VMCSL circulated loans to various related entities to inflate its books of accounts.
Forensic audit also revealed that M/s PISL (related entity) was given 3% commission amount by M/s VMCSL for all receipts from M/s BSNL without any specific role of M/s PISL in BSNL tenders.
It further revealed that M/s VMCSL had opened various Letters of Credit (LCs) worth ₹692 crore in the name of fake/dummy entities, which were subsequently devolved. V. Hima Bindu through her company and with the active assistance of her brother V Satish (MD of M/s PISL), in order to dodge the banks, created false or exaggerated operational revenues by generating fake sales/purchase invoices through the companies controlled by their directors/family members, the ED said.
“Hima Bindu siphoned off a part of proceeds of crime by remitting it to the overseas entities controlled by her family members,” they said.
On July 20, searches were conducted by ED on the residential premises of Hima Bindu, Satish and V. Madhavi and lots of incriminating documents and digital data in the form of 40 external hard discs, six mobiles and two laptops have been recovered.
The prime accused was not responding to the ED summons, not supplying the documents of her companies and transactions on one pretext or the other and blatantly lying regarding their foreign transactions, the officials said. “Hence, Hima Bindu has been arrested and has been produced before the PMLA Special Court and remanded to judicial custody till August 18,” the ED said.
