NEW DELHI: Enforcement Directorate on Thursday said it has attached properties worth over Rs 678 crore of the Avantha Group, owned and controlled by industrialist Gautam Thapar, in an alleged bank fraud and money-laundering case. The properties include land parcels located in Haryana, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand.
The agency said its investigation revealed that Avantha Group companies availed loans of more than Rs 2,400 crore from a consortium of banks led by SBI and later diverted over Rs 1,307 crore to related entities. These loans were availed without the due authorisation of the boards of these banks, ED said.
In Jan this year, ED had arrested Madhav Acharya, a senior official of Avantha Group in its money laundering case, which was based on a June 2021 FIR registered by CBI against Thapar, his CG Power and Industrial Solutions Ltd and other associates. Earlier, two attachments worth over Rs 14 crore were made , taking the total attachment to Rs 692 crore.
ED quoted a disclosure made by CG Power and Industrial Solutions Ltd before SEBI earlier which had “revealed that assets and liabilities of the company have been understated considerably and advances to related parties and unrelated parties have been understated”.
It has found wrongful pledge of certain assets as collateral where the company was a co-borrower and guarantor for enabling financing of loans. These loans were later routed out of the company without due authorisation, the agency said.
The notice of the disclosure was taken by the lender banks led by SBI to lodge a complaint with CBI.
In another money-laundering case related to Yes Bank, ED had arrested Gautam Thapar on Aug 4, 2021, after a series of day-long searches on his premises. ED’s Yes Bank case revealed that Thapar and Avantha Realty Ltd, Oyster Buildwell Pvt Ltd and others were allegedly involved in criminal conspiracy and forgery for diversion of public money during 2017 to 2019, causing loss of Rs 466 crore to Yes Bank.
