On Wednesday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) orchestrated raids of ten locations in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Punjab through its money laundering case involving an enormous bank fraud of 988 crores. Raids were conducted in nine places in NCR and one in Jalandhar against Shilpi Cables Technologies Ltd (SCTL), according to the officials privy to the proceedings.
The hits were done citing the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on the ground of a first information report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). SCTL is in the spot of embezzling a group of banks, including IDBI Bank, headed by attempting to receive huge loans against letters of credit (LCs) supposedly stolen as part of a fraudulent chain.
Investigators believe that much of the amount they lent was channeled to overseas accounts through bogus transactions. The Managing Director of the company, Manish Goel, is said to be under strict scrutiny. Several of these, whose premises were searched, are also presently or former office holders at SCTL, and it is felt they have helped in fund rotation and placement of illegal cash by use of shell companies, ultimately in the hands of Goel, said an ED official.
SCTL, which was engaged in designing and producing cables and wires used in the auto and telecommunications industries, is also charged with providing false accounts. The ED said in a statement in December 2024 that the company had made fictitious sales and purchases, establishing bogus entries in its books.
It was also found by the investigation that even though the company had outstanding foreign receivables worth close to 400 crores in 2015-16, it still provided goods on credit to these shady companies, presumably to mislead banks. A major proportion of properties that were purchased through such funds were found to have been in the names of shell companies owned by the promoters.
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