Mumbai: ED attaches assets worth Rs 57.45 crores linked to Atlas Jewellery in bank loan fraud

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached assets worth Rs 57.45 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the bank fraud case against M/s. Atlas Jewellery Private Limited (AJIL), after the agency had carried out search operations at the business premises of AJIL and bank lockers in Mumbai and Bengaluru.

The attached assets consist of gold, silver and diamond jewellery, silver articles, amounts lying in bank accounts, bank fixed deposits and immovable properties.

The ED initiated a money-laundering investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by the Kerala Police against AJIL and its officials on charges of cheating a bank in Thrissur.

"Money Laundering investigation revealed that the suspected persons during the period from March 2013 to September 2018 had cheated the bank. With an intention to cheat, the suspects planned and presented forged documents to the bank and availed loan worth Rs 242.40 crore for business purposes and had not repaid the money, which is nothing but proceeds of crime," the ED officials claimed.

"On the basis of information gathered from reliable sources to the effect that Chairman and Founder of AJIL, MM Ramachandran had invested Rs 100 crore by way of purchase of Equity Shares of AJIL and another Rs 14 crore in the Escrow Account with a bank in New Delhi, ED had done seizure of Indian Currency, Gold, Silver and Diamond Jewellery," the agency officials claimed.