Chennai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said it has attached six immovable properties, located in different places in Tamil Nadu worth Rs 20.65 crore and owned by S. Galeel Rahman, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in a bank fraud case.
According to the ED, the attached assets include a factory building along with land measuring 2.92 acres at Konamedu Industrial Estate, Vaniyambadi, a residential flat in Chennai and plots in Vellore.
The ED had initiated an investigation under the provisions of the PMLA based on a FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against accused Tomy G Poovattil, S. Galeel Rahman and others for defrauding the Indian Bank, Guindy Branch, Chennai under section 120 BA r/w 420 of Indian Penal Code and section 13(2) r/w 13(1) (d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The investigation has revealed that during the period from 2012 to 2014, Tomy G Poovattil, the then Assistant General Manager/Branch Manager of the Guindy Branch of Indian Bank had conspired with accused Rahman, Sirajuddin and others to cheat the Indian Bank by fraudulently sanctioning overdraft and credit facilities to various entities.
The accused Rahman managed to avail a loan on the basis of fabricated documents in the name of his firms namely M/s. Nafisa Overseas and M/s. Safa Leathers.
According to the ED, Rahman had forged the documents to inflate the property value placed as collateral security.
Over a period, these credit facilities became NPA (non-performing assets) including accrued interest totalling Rs 23.46 crore as on the date of filing the FIR.
The investigation revealed that these loan proceeds were laundered among a number of bank accounts maintained by the accused, his family members and associates.
The probe also brought out that the accused had a maze of transactions to project the fraudulent transactions as the proceeds of genuine trade transactions for availing further loans from the bank.
The sanctioned amounts were diverted and siphoned off.
