NEW DELHI: The ED has attached a sprawling property on Amrita Shergill Marg in Lutyen’s Delhi worth over Rs 486 crore belonging to Aarti Singhal, wife of Sanjay Singhal, former promoter of Bhushan Steel, in a money laundering case.
This is the second property on Amrita Shergill Marg to be attached by ED, after the agency took over a bungalow owned by Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor a few years ago.
Sanjay Singhal was earlier arrested by ED in a bank fraud case of more than Rs 47,000 crore. His company Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd (BPSL) was later sold to JSW group for Rs 19,350 crore after banks filed applications under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code to recover loans.
The banks, after recovering Rs 19,350 crore, still suffered a loss of about Rs 28,000 crore. “Accordingly, ED continued investigations for recovery of assets dissipated by erstwhile BPSL promoters. With the present provisional attachment of the house property at Amrita Shergill Marg, the total value of attachments done in this case is Rs 4,938 crore out of which Rs 4,025 crore stands restituted under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The investigating agency intends to restitute the remaining assets to the banks under the provisions of PMLA,” the agency said.
The property on Amrita Shergill Marg was owned by Aarti Singal, the then director of erstwhile BPSL. The ED said its investigations found that BPSL and its promoters diverted bank funds to private investments in the form of shares and properties. “The books of accounts were fudged to show fake expenses/purchases/capital assets and thereby bank funds were taken out in the form of cash. Cash was also generated from out of book sales and the same was utilised for acquiring assets in the name of family members,” the agency alleged.
The unaccounted cash was then brought into the books of various beneficially owned benami companies held through employees/dummy directors and the same was utilised for investments in the form of shares and immovable properties.
“The bank funds were dissipated towards acquisition of private assets and held in such a way that the banks should not be able to recover the loan amounts,” the ED said.
The main promoter Sanjay Singal was arrested by ED in Nov 2019 and a chargesheet has been filed against him and other key employees. A court has taken cognizance of the chargesheet and the trial is pending.