Hyderabad: ‘Conman’ cheats banks, ED attaches properties

Hyderabad: The Enforcement Directorate has attached assets worth Rs 2.42 crore of Ganne Srinivas Rao in a case of bank fraud. This comes after searc-hes were held at his offices in Hyderabad in July. The attached properties include agricultural lands and residential flats located in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state.

The ED took up investigation on the basis of a CBI chargesheet in a bank fraud by Srinivas Rao. Investigation revealed that Srinivasa Rao, between 2010 and 2013, had fraudulently availed of housing and vehicle loans to the tune of `25.50 crore from various banks in his name and those of his relatives and employees by submitting fake or forged documents.

It was revealed that for siphoning of the loan proceeds, Srini-vasa Rao opened bank accounts in the name of shell entities, namely, Durga Steels,  Delta Ion Exchange Private Limi-ted, Automotive Manu-facturers Private Limi-ted, Mahavir Motors Private Limited and Saravana Motors. He floated fictitious entities such as Sri Saravana Industries, Sri Subramanyam Ind-ustries, Sri Murugan Industries in the names of his relatives and employees.

“This was done to avoid early detection by banks and to layer the proceeds of crime and conceal them for personal benefit. The loans availed by Srinivasa Rao and his relatives and employees slipped into NPA,” the ED said.

So far, 13 immovable properties purchased at a value of `2.42 crore which were derived from the proceeds of crime in the names of Srinivasa Rao his mother Manikumari and relative Nandigam Naveen Kumar were identified and attached under PMLA by the ED. The present market value of these properties is estimated to be 3-4 times the purchase price.