ED files complaint against DPIL Ltd for Rs 2,600 crore bank fraud

Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said that it has filed prosecution complaint against an Ahmedabad-based electric cables firm, Diamond Power Infrastructure Ltd. (DPIL), in an alleged money laundering and bank fraud case worth over Rs 2,600 crore before the special court in Ahmedabad.

The agency said in a statement that it had already attached immovable assets of DPIL to the tune of Rs 1122.72 crore on April 24, 2018. The charges against the accused have been made under section 4 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) for the confiscation of attached assets as well punishment for directors of DIPL Amit Bhatnagar, Sumit Bhatnagar, Suresh Bhatnagar and 11 others.

Investigations in the case were initiated on the basis of a complaint registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Gandhinagar against DPIL and others for causing loss to the consortium of banks to the tune of Rs 2654 crore.

Further, the investigations conducted by the ED revealed that DPIL had availed term loans and working capital loans, external commercial borrowings and non-convertible debentures from a consortium of 19 banks and institutions. During the probe, it was found that DPIL had misused the facility of letters of credit issued by their banks for payments of about Rs 1222.74 crore against fake purchases made from Archon Engicon Ltd., Accord Industries Ltd., Jindal Aluminium Foils P. Ltd. and Ruby Cables Ltd. Meanwhile, it was also revealed that DPIL had diverted about Rs 5.80 crore to their UAE based company Diamond Power Global Holding Ltd., and about Rs 44 crore to their group company Northway Spaces Ltd. DPIL also diverted about USD 40,32,000 (approx. Rs 21 crore) to their group company Mayfair Leisures Ltd. through a series of UAE based companies.

When the banks conducted stock audits of DPIL, it was found that a large part of the stock of goods was missing from their premises. The total of such missing stock during 2008-2018 is about Rs 453.54 crore.

Moreover, it was revealed that DPIL has shown excess sales of about Rs 270 crore to PSUs like GETCO, Powergrid Corporation of India, PGVCL and DGVCL. Also, DPIL has shown false trade receivables to the tune of Rs 384 crore in respect of 19 customers investigated by ED so far.

Further investigation into the matter is underway.