Bank loan fraud: ED arrests MD of Mumbai-based agro company

Vinod Chaturvedi, MD of Usher Agro Limited and other group companies, was arrested on 17 September in a case of 'cheating and siphoning off bank loans.' The MD was non-cooperative and did not divulge any information during questioning, the ED said.

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday said it has arrested the managing director of a Mumbai-based agro company in a money laundering probe linked to an alleged multi-crore bank fraud.

Vinod Chaturvedi, MD of Usher Agro Limited and other group companies, was arrested on 17 September in a case of "cheating and siphoning off bank loans." The MD was non-cooperative and did not divulge any information during questioning, the ED claimed.

The agency said in a statement that a special Prevention of Money Laundering court in Mumbai on 18 September sent him to five days of ED custody. The PMLA case against Chaturvedi, his firm, and a person identified as Manoj Pathak is based on a CBI FIR where it was alleged that "the group has taken loan from a consortium of banks and siphoned off the same."

"Proceeds of crime have been identified and quantified to the tune of Rs915.65 crore in this case. The promoters formed 15 shell companies and carried out bogus transactions," the ED alleged. The group companies also carried out "bogus" transactions with the Dewan Housing Finance Corporation group companies.

(PTI)