Mumbai resident held in criminal misappropriation, forgery case of approx Rs 70 crores

A Mumbai resident, named RL Kabra, was apprehended at Jaipur Airport in an alleged case of criminal misappropriation and forgery of approximately Rs 70 crores.

On December 6, 2018, a complaint was registered by a man, named Ashish Begwani, Director, Enso Infrastructures (P) Ltd, New Delhi, under Sections 409, 467, 468, 471, 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW).

It was alleged that in August 2010, he was approached by Ravi Parthasarthy, Hari Shankaran, and K Ramchand - all directors of IL & FS Transportation Networks Ltd.

Allured by their promises, Enso Infrastructures (P) Ltd agreed to invest in IL & FS Rail Ltd and invested Rs 170 crore in order to take 15 per cent shares of IL & FS Rail Ltd, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for Gurgaon Metro project, read a statement.

However, over a period of time, complainant observed that the company is not performing profitably and funds are being misused. In May 2018, a complainant came across copies of demand notices served by the Income Tax Department upon IL & FS Rail Ltd. Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax, Gurugram had passed assessment orders concluding that IL & FS Rail Ltd had issued bogus contract orders to Silverpoint Infratech Ltd when in fact no work was executed by this company, the statement added.

The invoices raised by the Silverpoint Infratech Ltd are "forged and fabricated," the statement said.

"IL & FS Rail Ltd has done so to inflate its expenditure and show less profit in its books. The amount of about Rs 21.88 crore so paid to Silverpoint Company is not an actual expenditure incurred. It is alleged by the complainant that directors of the alleged company IL & FS Rail Ltd and other officers of the company intentionally siphoned off the funds of the company to the tune of about Rs 70 crore causing loss to the complainant company," the statement added.

During the investigation, the alleged persons did not give any satisfactory reply about the contracts awarded to the questioned companies. Moreover, no estimate was taken, no name and address of any of the contractors was given or kept in record.

Money was siphoned off by making payments to several layers of the companies. Every company in the layer had kept a margin of at least 2 per cent in the name of TDS and service tax, the statement said. Kabra was apprehended at Jaipur Airport and has been arrested in the case.

Police is searching for the other accused persons.