New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Wednesday carried out searches at the premises of five companies linked to media mogul Subhash Chandra’s Essel Group as part of its ongoing investigation into allegations of Rs 150 crore being diverted from the Non-Banking Financial Corporation (NBFC) arm of the Religare Group.
In a statement released Thursday, the agency said it recorded statements of officials of Konti Infrapower & Multiventures Pvt Ltd, Edison Infrapower & Multiventures Pvt Ltd, Asian Satellite Broadcast Ltd, Widescreen Holdings Pvt Ltd, Jayneer Capital Pvt Ltd and Sprit Infrapower & Multiventures Pvt Ltd after raiding their premises.
The ED said searches were also carried out at the residence of a former “senior official” of the Essel Group and that it recovered some “incriminating documents” in the wide-ranging raids Wednesday.
The raids are part of a money-laundering probe against these companies which stemmed from a First Information Report (FIR) lodged by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police in which Religare Finvest alleged that four companies of the Essel Group hatched a criminal conspiracy and caused “wrongful loss” to the company by defaulting on a loan of Rs 150 crore.
The ED statement said that the NBFC had given a loan of Rs 150 crore to companies in 2014, out of which Edison Infrapower & Multiventures Pvt Ltd and Konti Infrapower & Multiventures Pvt. Ltd were given Rs 50 crore each while Widescreen Holdings Pvt Ltd had got Rs 40 crore and Asian Satellite Broadcast Pvt Ltd had got the remaining Rs 10 crore of the loan amount.
“The search has resulted in the recovery of incriminating documents and recording of spot statements of officials of the companies under the provisions of PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) 2002,” read the statement.
The federal probe agency said that these four companies defaulted on the loan by signing a fake settlement agreement with the then management and officials of Religare Finvest and another firm called Oscar Investments.
The Delhi Police EOW had in October 2019 arrested the former promoter Shivinder Singh, former CMD Sunil Godhwani and former CFO Anil Saxena along with former MD of Religare Finvest MD Kavi Arora.
“The alleged persons having absolute control on Religare Enterprises and its subsidiaries put Religare Finvest in poor financial condition by way of disbursing the loans to the companies having no financial standing and control by the alleged persons. These companies wilfully defaulted in repayments and caused wrongful loss to RFL to the tune of Rs 2,397 crore. This was also pointed out and flagged during their independent audit by RBI and SEBI,” the EOW had said in a statement post their arrest.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)