Indore: The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Indore Sub-Zonal Office, has provisionally attached 18 immovable properties valued at Rs 13 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, in connection with a bank fraud case involving Alok Sharda and others.
The provisional attachment order was issued on Thursday. The ED investigation was initiated on the basis of two FIRs registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Bhopal. The FIRs relate to allegations of cheating and fraud involving IDBI Bank and M/s Kisan Dhan Agri Financial Services Private Limited, a non-banking financial company.
According to the ED, Alok Sharda, proprietor of M/s Sharda Warehouse located at Manpur in District Indore, in connivance with others, misused the Warehouse Receipt Finance Scheme. The accused allegedly showed agricultural commodities purportedly belonging to farmers as stored in the warehouse and issued warehouse receipts. On the basis of these receipts, loans were sanctioned to 42 farmers against a total of 62,965 bags of soybean and gram.
Investigators found that the pledged commodities were “unauthorisedly” removed and disposed of. Forged or fictitious warehouse receipts, false representations regarding the availability of stock, and the suppression or removal of records were used to obtain and continue the loan facilities. This resulted in a wrongful loss of Rs 14.04 crore to IDBI Bank and a corresponding wrongful gain to the accused persons, the ED said in a press release.
In a related transaction, M/s Kisan Dhan Agri Financial Services Private Limited had sanctioned warehouse receipt finance of Rs 12.04 crore to Alok Sharda against agricultural commodities claimed to be stored in the same warehouse. Subsequent verification revealed a substantial shortage of the pledged stock. The commodities had been removed and disposed of without obtaining the requisite release or no-objection certificate from the lender.
Taken together, Alok Sharda and the other accused persons, acting in collusion, caused a wrongful loss of approximately Rs 26 crore to IDBI Bank and M/s Kisan Dhan Agri Financial Services Private Limited while deriving corresponding wrongful gains.
(IANS)
