Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested city-based businessman Vijay Gupta of Vindhyavasini Group on money laundering charges.
The CBI has registered cases against Gupta for defrauding the State Bank of India to the tune of Rs 764.44 crore by availing credit facilities based on forged and fabricated documents. The ED arrested Gupta on Wednesday night for allegedly failing to cooperate with the agency. He was later produced before a special court.
While seeking Gupta’s custody, ED prosecutor Arvind Aghav contended that the businessman submitted forged documents to the bank, such as memoranda of understanding and technical economic viability reports, and highly inflated valuation reports of properties that were required to be mortgaged.
The ED also contended that, for the purpose of preparing false accounts, the auditor was bribed to get credit facilities from the SBI on the basis of forged and fabricated documents. The agency’s probe revealed that Gupta bribed a relationship manager at SBI to the tune of ₹59 lakh to obtain credit facilities.
It is the claim of the prosecution that by defrauding the banks, the accused, along with others, their companies / firms generated proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 764.44 crore.
The defence, however, claimed that the loan amount of Rs 155 crore, which was taken and disbursed in the bank account of M/s Ruby Mills Ltd, saw Rs 54 crore returned to the bank as the transaction was never completed. The court, however, at this stage, did not accept the arguments, saying it was not supported by the documents.
The court, after considering the prosecution’s allegations and the need to trace the beneficiaries, money trail and properties, remanded Gupta to ED custody till April 2.
