ED begins attachment of assets in fraud probe

The Asian Age.

Metros, Kolkata

It claimed that the loans were taken on the basis of false and fabricated documents.

(Representational Image)

Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) initiated the process attaching assets and properties of RP Info Systems, an private IT firm accused of a bank fraud of RS 515.15 crores, and its directors. The firm’s two directors: Koustuv Roy and Sibaji Panja were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recently.

They were remanded to the CBI custody by the court later also.

According to sources, the Enforcement Directorate has decided to attach the firm’s assets and properties totalling around Rs 70 crores which includes the office also.

The move will be followed by the attachment of the assets and properties of Mr Roy and Panja and another director, sources in the Enforcement Directorate indicated in context of the central agency’s plan to investigate the case from money laundering angle.

Later the ED would go on attaching the assets and properties bought in exchange of the bank loan which was obtained against the submission forged documents, sources disclosed while adding that the probe would focus on the utilisation of the huge amount of the bank loans.

The ED’s probe will run parallel to the one being conducted by the CBI’s bank security and fraud cell.

In February the Canara Bank lodged a complaint to the CBI alleging that the firm’s directors: Shivaji Panja, Kaustuv Ray and Vinay Bafna, cheated it and nine other members of a banking consortium to the tune of Rs 515.15 crores.

It claimed that the loans were taken on the basis of false and fabricated documents.

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