Bank fraud case: ED attaches Rs.12 cr assets

The Enforcement Directorate has attached eight immovable properties consisting of about 80 residential units at several neighbourhoods here worth Rs.12 crore as a followup in a bank fraud case.
The properties had been purchased by one Kumar alias Vijayakumar by obtaining several loans, including housing and personal, from the Syndicate Bank here using forged documents in the names of his friends and relatives, an official release said here today.
In May 2013, several officials of Syndicate Bank, (Housing finance) Mylaore Branch, alongwith Kumar, a resident of Tiruvottiyur here, were chargesheeted in the fraud case by the CBI's anti-corruption branch here.

The release said some bank officials allegedly sanctioned loans on the basis of such fabricated documents to the tune of Rs.6 crore following a criminal conspiracy.
All the accused were booked under several sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The case was subsequently taken up by the ED for scrutiny under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The ED probe corroborated that Kumar had obtained several loans including housing and personal under forged documents in the names of his friends and relatives. The money got through loans were used for purchasing and developing eight properties.
Kumar had been getting rental and lease income from them. He did not, however, repay the loans.

"As the immovable properties are proceeds of crime under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the ED has attached them and further probe is on," the release added.