Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) provisionally attached four immovable properties belonging to Pune’s Rosary Education Group and its partners, Vinay Aranha and Vivek Aranha, worth Rs47.1 crore under the provisions of the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002).
The ED investigation is on the basis of a case registered by the Pune Police, according to which the accused allegedly accessed a Rs20.44 crore loan from Cosmos Cooperative Bank by submitting fake property documents.
The present market value of the attached properties is estimated to be around Rs98.2 crore. They include lands and school buildings that are owned in the name of Vinay Aranha and his family. The Pune Police had registered the first information report based on a complaint by Cosmos Bank, wherein it was alleged that the accused had “obtained a loan of Rs20.44 crore by submitting fake documents of property”, an ED official said.
The agency’s probe established that the accused had allegedly obtained multiple loans, including car loans, in the year 2013-14 from Cosmos Cooperative Bank by submitting fabricated property documents, the official said. It was alleged that one of the accused, Vinay, had submitted bogus work invoices, in the guise of refurbishment of the Rosary schools and got loans disbursed to bogus vendors, which were immediately withdrawn in cash and handed back to him, the official said.
The ED has conducted a probe into the trail of the funds and found that the accused had allegedly diverted the loans and got crores of rupee in cash, the official said.
“Vinay Aranha got loan amounts disbursed… Rs34 crore to Paramount Infrastructure, Shabbir Patanwala, Ashwin Kamat, Deepti Enterprises and others. All these so-called vendors have admitted that they did not do any work and returned the cash to Aranha,” the official said.
“Despite giving repeated opportunities, Vinay Aranha has not given any account of the utilisation of the cash. Even in his schools, they did not maintain any account of revenue, expenditure and income since 2012 and no income tax returns were filed,” the official said. The ED claimed that this was purposefully done allegedly to enable the accused to siphon off the funds.
“Vinay Aranha admittedly splurged large amounts on celebrities and to host gala events, in the name of Vinay Aranha Foundation, for self-aggrandizement and also purchased multiple luxury cars. During the course of the investigation, he was evasive and non-cooperative and did not respond to multiple summons,” the official said.
The ED had arrested Aranha under PMLA on March 10 and he is under custody till March 20.New Delhi, Mar 20 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday said it has attached four properties, including land and a school building, of the promoters of a Pune-based education group under the anti-money laundering law. The action is part of a probe into an alleged bank loan fraud against a local cooperative bank.
The assets belong to Rosary Education Group and its main partners Vinay Aranha and Vivek Aranha. A provisional order for attaching four properties has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the agency said in a statement.
"The present market value of the attached properties is estimated to be around Rs 98.20 crore," it said.
Vinay Aranha was arrested by the ED on March 10.
The money laundering case stems from a Pune Police FIR filed on the basis of a complaint made by Shivaji Vithal Kale of Cosmos Bank against Vinay Aranha and Vivek Aranha. The complaint alleged that the accused obtained loans of Rs 20.44 crore from the bank by submitting "fake" property documents.
Vinay Aranha submitted "bogus" work invoices (in the guise of refurbishment of the Rosary schools) and got loans disbursed to bogus vendors which were immediately withdrawn in cash and handed back to Aranha (Vinay), it said.
Vinay Aranha, the ED alleged, "diverted" the loans and got crores of rupee in cash.
He also got loan amounts worth Rs 34 crore disbursed to Paramount Infrastructure, Shabbir Patanwala, Ashwin Kamat, Deepti Enterprises and others.
"All these so-called vendors have admitted that they did not do any work and returned the cash to Aranha. Despite giving repeated opportunities, Vinay Aranha has not given any account of the utilisation of the cash," it said.
The ED found the schools of the group "did not" maintain any account of revenue, expenditure and income since 2012 and no ITRs (income tax returns) were filed.
"All this was purposefully done to enable Vinay Aranha to siphon off funds as per his whims and fancy. He admittedly splurged large amounts on celebrities and to host gala events (in the name of Vinay Aranha Foundation) for self-aggrandisement and also purchased multiple luxury cars," the ED said. PTI NES .
