ED arrests 2 ex-officials of First Leasing bank fraud case

Two former officials of city-based First Leasing Company of India Limited (FLCIL) were today arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a bank fraud case of over Rs 500 crore. ED officials arrested S Dilliraj, former Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and L Sivaramakrishnan, former CFO of FLCIL, a non-banking finance company registered with RBI, under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, the agency said in a statement. Dilliraj was the "key" person up to 2007 and was involved in negotiating with the banks while Sivaramakrishnan "is in-charge of all financial operations", it said.

A money laundering case was registered by ED against the company in relation to a CBI case filed against it for "cheating" IDBI Bank and SBI to the extent of over Rs 500 crore a few years ago, it said, adding the company MD, Farouk Irani, had already been arrested in this case.
During investigation, searches were conducted at the residences of Dilliraj and Sivaramakrishnan and "certain property documents were recovered", it said.
"Dilliraj and Sivaramakrishnan admitted (to) their crucial role in fudging of accounts of FLCIL in order to obtain undue loans from the banks. In the process, they were enriched and aided undue enrichment of other persons like Farouk Irani," the release said.

The arrested were remanded to judicial custody by a court till August 11, it said.