ED Attaches Assets Worth Rs 19.11 Cr in IDBI Bank Fraud Case
Hyderabad: The zonal office of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) here has attached movable and immovable assets with a book value of Rs 19.11 crore of Nerella Venkatarama Mohan Rao and others in a case of cheating of IDBI bank.
Officials claimed that the seized assets have a market value of Rs 71.61 crore while the total fraud was of Rs 300 crore.
This is related to the loans they took for fraudulent Kisan Credit Card (KCC) fish tanks. The seizure was made under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The attached properties are in the names of aggregators, their family members and benamis. These included agricultural lands, commercial sites and plots in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana having a market value of Rs 71.61 crore, as also their bank account balance of Rs 15.55 lakh.
The ED said it initiated investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by CBI, Visakhapatnam, under various sections of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, against Rama Mohan Rao and 10 others for “fraudulently availing KCC fish tank loans of Rs 31,105 crore in the names of 350 borrowers from IDBI Bank, Rajahmundry branch.”
Investigation revealed that Nerella Venkata Rama Mohan Rao, Badigantla Srinivasa Rao, Bandi Narayana Rao, Gidugu Satya Nagendra Srinivasa Rao, Karri Gandhi, Manepalli Surya Manikyam, Manepalli Suryanarayana Gupta, R.V. Chandramouli Prasad, Goluguri Rama Krishna Reddy, Vanapalli Narayana Rao and Vanapalli Pallaiah acted as ‘aggregators’ for KCC fish tank loans sanctioned to 350 borrowers and were the ultimate beneficiaries.
“These 11 aggregators conspired with the officials of IDBI bank and others and availed KCC Fish Tank loans totalling Rs 311.05 crore on the strength of fabricated documents, primarily in the names of their employees, relatives, benamis and farmers who were ineligible for such loans.”
Further, the value of collateral securities offered against the loans was highly inflated in connivance with the valuers. The sanctioned KCC loan amounts were diverted from the borrowers' accounts to the aggregators through cash withdrawals as well as bank transfers to the accounts of aggregators and other persons on the directions of the aggregators.
The diverted and siphoned off loans were utilized by the aggregators for acquisition of immovable properties in their name and in the names of their family members, benamis etc, ED said.
The diverted funds were also used by them for investment in their other business and for repayment of old loans. Properties acquired by the aggregators out of the proceeds of crime were again used by them as collateral securities for availing further loans, investigations showed.