ED arrests Amtek's Arvind Dham in Rs 25,000 crore bank 'fraud' case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Arvind Dham, promoter of Amtek Group, in connection with a money laundering probe for alleged bank fraud to the tune of Rs 25,000 crore. A special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court has granted Dham seven days in custody, the ED said in a release on Thursday.

The move follows searches conducted by the agency last month at around 35 locations in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Nagpur as part of its money laundering probe. The searches were also carried out on the company’s directors and others.

The ED arrest follows the criminal complaint against Dham and others by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against a group entity of Amtek—ACIL Ltd—over allegations of bank fraud in a number of listed companies which had faced bankruptcy, leaving the banks with a nominal recovery. The ED estimates the loss to the exchequer to be about Rs 10,000-15,000 crore.