Rs 250 crore bank fraud: ED restores Rs 55 crore proceeds of crime to legal claimants

New Delhi, July 11 (IANS) In a key development in the Rs 250 crore bank fraud case against an infrastructure company, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has restored properties – attached as Proceeds of Crime (POC) - valued at Rs 55.85 crore to rightful claimants, an official said on Friday.

The POC were restored to the successful resolution applicant, which took over the management of Era Infra Engineering Limited as part of the resolution process. The company, Hem Singh Bharana (an official) and others were booked for fraud in 2018.

The restored properties include two tunnel boring machines and bank account balances of the company, the ED said.

Era Infra Engineering is engaged in diversified construction activities for infrastructure projects like airports, power projects, institutional and industrial complexes and multiplexes, and residential buildings catering to PSUs, private sector, CPWD and Asian Development aided projects.

The company obtained loans of Rs 650 crore from UCO Bank and then fraudulently siphoned off part of the amount by diverting it to group companies.

The company and its officials also utilised the loan amount towards purposes which did not form part of the loan agreement, the ED said, adding that the account was declared a non-performing asset (NPA) on July 7, 2013.

The ED issued three Provisional Attachment Orders dated October 7, 2019, July 8, 2020 and August 5, 2020, in which two tunnel boring machines and bank account balances of the company were attached apart from other movable and immovable properties.

A Prosecution Complaint was then filed on March 12, 2021, in this case seeking confiscation of the properties.

The ED initiated an investigation into the case on the basis of an FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on April 12, 2018, against Era Infra Engineering Limited, Bharana and others.

The company and its officials were booked under penal provisions dealing with cheating, conspiracy, forgery and using forged documents as genuine and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act for committing a bank fraud of Rs 250.70 crore.

Era Infra Engineering went into the resolution process, and another company by the name of SA Infrastructure Consultants Private Limited was declared the Successful Resolution Applicant by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on June 11, 2024.

An application was filed before the Special Court by the new management of Era Infra Engineering Limited, which is now looking after the affairs of the company, for the restoration of the attached properties.

The court ordered the restoration of the properties amounting to Rs 55,85 crore after the ED agreed to do so.

--IANS

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