New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Monday carried out searches at 12 locations linked to Tamil Nadu cabinet minister Kanakilliyanallur Narayansamy Nehru and his MP son Arun Nehru in connection with a money laundering probe into a bank loan fraud case.
The senior Nehru is the minister for municipal administration, urban and water supply in the MK Stalin-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government, while his son Arun is Lok Sabha MP from Peramblur parliamentary constituency.
The searches were conducted after the federal probe agency lodged an Enforcement Complaint Information Report (ECIR) based on a case of diversion of bank loans by a company run by the Nehru family, sources aware of the matter said. The case was registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in December 2021.
The CBI had booked Chennai-based firm Truedom EPC India and its directors under Sections 420 (cheating), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The FIR was filed based on a complaint of Indian Overseas Bank, which alleged that Truedom had caused a loss of at least Rs 22.48 crore as on 30 June 2021 by diverting the loan amount of Rs 30 crore to its sister concerns.
The bank had alleged that Truedom was given a term loan of Rs 30 crore in March 2013 for setting up a 100.80 megawatt Wind Energy Production Project in Tiruppur district as part of two contracts it bagged from Trishe Renewable Energy Solutions.
The firm further diverted these funds to Ecodom Power, Mark Green Developers and Balaji Traders to the tune of Rs 13.50 crore, Rs 12.50 crore and Rs 4 crore, respectively.
While Truedom claimed to have transferred funds to these companies purely to execute works for the contracts, the bank management alleged that no work was done on the site which should have been completed by September 2013 as per terms of the contract.
Additionally, the bank also alleged that all the three firms were related to Truedom in one way or the other. It alleged that Arun Nehru and Selvamani Thiyagarajan were directors of Ecodomm Power and since the former is a nephew of N. Ravichandran, who is the chairman and director of True Value Homes (India), the corporate guarantor for Rs 30 crore loan to Truedom, they should be seen as related parties.
Selvamani Thiyagarajan was the proprietor of Balaji Traders at the time of diversion of Rs 4 crore, but he was also a former director in Truedom.
Additionally, the bank had alleged that Truedom also secured payment of around Rs 30 crore from Trishe Renewable Energy Solutions in the financial year 2013-24 as part of Rs 60.48 crore worth of contracts. However, instead of using that for the purpose of repayment of the loan, it routed those funds to True Value Homes (India), controlled by K.N.Nehru’s younger brother N. Ravichandran.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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