ED attaches over Rs 100 cr assets of TN med college chairman

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today attached assets worth over Rs 100 crore of an arrested Chairman of a Tamil Nadu-based medical institute in connection with its money laundering probe in alleged duping of banks and aspiring students by the said group in 2013.
The agency's zonal office here, an official statement said, carried out the action in "a case of bank fraud of about Rs 136 crore and cheating of students to the tune of over Rs 16 crore by attaching properties of T D Naidu, Chairman of Deen Dayal Medical and Education Trust (DDMET), Thiruvallur under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)."

The order said the total value of the seized assets is worth over Rs 104 crore and the attached assets include various lands in Thiruvallur, a residential property in Chennai's Anna Nagar, other building assets and a cash of Rs 15 lakh and five vehicles worth about Rs 90 lakh.
The agency had arrested Naidu on July 7 on charges of being involved in the "offence of money laundering" based on its separate FIR lodged in 2013 and subsequently carried out searches on a number of his premises and those of his companies.
The case pertains to an alleged bank fraud of Rs 136 crore and cheating of students to the tune of Rs 16 crore allegedly by Naidu and others.

An ED complaint in this case said "the Tamil Nadu police registered 66 FIRs against Naidu based on complaints for cheating students for medical admissions to the tune of over Rs 16 crore.

"It was complained that he (Naidu) had taken huge amounts of money from aspiring students for medical admissions into the (said) college without having necessary permission from the Medical Council of India."
"Based on these said FIRs, investigations under the PMLA were initiated and it revealed that CBI bank fraud cell Bangalore has also taken up two more cases against him (Naidu) for cheating Andhra Bank to the tune of over Rs 69 crore and Union Bank of India to the tune of over Rs 66 crore," the ED had said.

It was revealed that Naidu "cheated the said banks by producing forged and fake documents", it added.
Naidu is at present lodged in central prison in Phuzal.
An attachment of assets order under PMLA is aimed to deprive the accused from receiving the benefits of his or her tainted wealth.
The provisional ED order can be challenged by the accused before the Adjudicating Authority of the PMLA within three months time.