Kolkata, July 2 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) Kolkata Zonal Office has provisionally attached 20 immovable properties having a total market value of Rs 31.30 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, in connection with the case against Concast Steel & Power Ltd. and others.
A statement issued by the central investigation agency on Thursday said that attached assets comprise residential properties, commercial units, flats and land parcels situated in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi.
These were beneficially owned and controlled by Sanjay Kumar Sureka and have been held either in his own name or in the names of his relatives, employees, associates and shell companies for the purpose of concealing the Proceeds of Crime.
Total attachments in this case stand at a cumulative market value of approximately Rs 777.1 crore so far.
Furthermore, ED has filed a second supplementary prosecution complaint against 63 new accused before the Special Court (PMLA) in Kolkata, in connection with the ongoing money laundering investigation against M/s Concast Steel & Power Ltd. (CSPL) and others under the PMLA, 2002.
“In the present Supplementary Prosecution Complaint, 63 additional accused persons/entities have been arrayed as accused, including individuals, companies, LLPs, partnership firms and proprietary concerns found to have knowingly participated in the laundering of Proceeds of Crime,” read the statement.
It further said, “ED initiated an investigation based on an FIR registered by CBI, BSFB, Kolkata under various Sections of the IPC, 1860 and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 against Sanjay Kumar Sureka and others. The FIR alleges that M/s Concast Steel & Power Ltd. (CSPL), along with its promoters and directors, fraudulently obtained credit facilities from a consortium of banks by submitting inflated stock statements, manipulated financial statements and fabricated records, and thereafter diverted and siphoned off loan funds, causing a wrongful loss of approximately Rs 6,210.72 crore (excluding interest) to banks and financial institutions.”
M/s Concast Steel & Power Ltd. (CSPL), promoted by Sanjay Kumar Sureka, operated integrated steel manufacturing facilities in West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
Investigation under the PMLA has established that Sanjay Kumar Sureka orchestrated a sophisticated money laundering network by creating and controlling more than 60 shell companies, firms and LLPs beneficially owned and controlled by him, though ostensibly held in the names of employees, relatives, associates and dummy directors.
These entities were utilised to divert, route and layer the Proceeds of Crime through accommodation entries, unsecured loans, inter-corporate transactions, fictitious trade transactions, devolved Letters of Credit, book adjustments and circular movement of funds before integrating them into immovable properties, investments and other high-value assets.
–IANS
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