Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached assets worth Rs 61.38 crore of erstwhile promoters of Bhushan Steel Limited (BSL) in connection with a money-laundering probe.
The federal agency attached the properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in its ongoing investigations regarding siphoning of public funds from BSL, Bhushan Energy Limited (BEL) and others.
The attached assets consist of agricultural land in Raigad, Maharashtra, warehouses in entities under the control of erstwhile promoters of BSL.
According to a statement issued by ED, the agency had initiated a money-laundering investigation on the basis of a complaint filed in 2019 filed by the Serious Frauds Investigation Office (SFIO) under various provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 and Indian Penal Code, 1860 against Bhushan Steel Limited, Bhushan Energy Limited and others involving siphoning of public funds.
"During the course of investigations under PMLA, it was revealed that Neeraj Singal along with B.B. Singal (Ex. Promoters of BSL) and others had diverted funds from BSL through an elaborate and complex web of transactions by way of routing of public funds in the garb of unsecured loans given by Bhushan Energy Limited to their associate companies, which were ultimately utilized for the acquisition of various immovable properties. The elaborate and complex web of transactions was structured to project these assets as untainted," the ED claimed in a statement.
