Mumbai Resident Held in Criminal Misappropriation, Forgery Case of Approx Rs 70 Crores

A resident of Mumbai, RL Kabra, was detained at the Jaipur airport in an alleged case of criminal misappropriation and forgery of approximately Rs 70 crores. Last year on December 6, Economic Offences Wing (EOW) registered a complaint by the director of Enso Infrastructures (P) Ltd Ashish Begwani in New Delhi under Sections 409 (  Criminal Breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant, or agent), 467, 468, 471, 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). 

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Ashish alleged that in August 2010, he was approached by Ravi Parthasarthy, Hari Shankaran, and K Ramchand - all directors of IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd to influence him with their offer.

Allured by their promises, Enso Infrastructures (P) Ltd agreed to invest  Rs 170 crore in IL&FS Rail Ltd in order to buy 15 per cent shares of IL&FS Rail Ltd, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for Gurgaon Metro project. 

In May 2018, a complainant came across copies of demand notices served by the Income Tax Department upon IL&FS Rail Ltd after noticing the company’s performance and misuse of funds. Later, Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax, Gurugram passed an assessment order concluding that IL&FS Rail Ltd had issued bogus contract orders to Silverpoint Infratech Ltd when in fact no work was executed by this company, the statement added.

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The invoices raised by the Silverpoint Infratech Ltd are "forged and fabricated," the statement said.

"IL&FS Rail Ltd has done so to inflate its expenditure and show less profit in its books. The amount of about Rs 21.88 crore so paid to Silverpoint Company is not an actual expenditure incurred. It is alleged by the complainant that directors of the alleged company IL&FS Rail Ltd and other officers of the company intentionally siphoned off the funds of the company to the tune of about Rs 70 crore causing loss to the complainant company," the statement added.

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During the investigation, the accused did not give any adequate answer about the contracts assigned to the questioned companies. Moreover, no details about the money and contractors involved were revealed. 

Money was siphoned off by making payments to several layers of the companies. Every company in the layer had kept a margin of at least 2 per cent in the name of TDS and service tax, the statement said.

 Kabra was apprehended at Jaipur Airport and has been arrested. While Police are looking for other accused in the case. 

(With inputs from ANI)

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