The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached movable and immovable properties worth Rs367 crore of Bhushan Steel Limited (BSL) under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The immovable properties located in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Odisha were held in the name of proxies and shell entities through dummy directors, according to officials.
The ED had initiated investigations on the basis of a prosecution complaint filed by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office against Bhushan Steel Limited.
Details of case
Former managing director of Bhushan Steel, Neeraj Singal, and his associates are accused of forming several shell companies and rotating funds from one company to another through a network of entities.
The ED probe revealed that bank funds were circulated to infuse capital, buy property and for other personal purposes by the accused. “Promoters, directors and officials of BSL prepared forged documents and made fraudulent representations before the banks to discount Letter of Credits (LCs) and diverted the funds back into their own companies with mala fide intention,” the ED said in a statement.
The funds were misappropriated against the "fabricated" LCs created in favour of JSW Steel Limited and Hindustan Zinc Limited. The misappropriated amount was diverted to the other group / associated companies, causing huge losses to the State Bank of India and the Punjab National Bank.
The ED had provisionally attached assets worth Rs61.38 crore in November 2021 and arrested Singal in June 2023 for money laundering. His sister Archana Mittal, brother-in-law Ajay Mittal; Nittin Johri (the then chief financial officer), Prem Tewari (the then vice-president, banking) and Prem Agarwal (the then vice-president, accounts) of Bhushan Steel were also arrested in October last year.
