The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has taken into possession the attached assets in a Rs 635 crore alleged bank fraud case involving Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) MLA from Gangakhed, Ratnakar Gutte. The assets worth around Rs 255 crores taken into possession were the ones that were earlier attached by the ED in December 2020 in connection with a money laundering case.
According to the agency officials, the ED had initiated a money laundering probe in May 2019 on the basis of an FIR registered by the Gangakhed Police in Parbhani, against a company linked to Gutte and others alleging misappropriation of bank loans. The loans taken were under a scheme where banks gave loans to farmers cultivating sugarcane for buying equipment, seeds, fertilisers, tractors for farming.
"After the permission of the adjudicating authority, the attached assets have been taken into possession. The properties include a sugar plant and machinery worth 247 crores, land worth around Rs 5 crores and a few other properties that were attached earlier in December 2020 by the ED," said an ED official.
