Jammu, Aug 21 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) Jammu Sub Zonal Office has provisionally attached immovable property worth Rs 66.77 crore in a money laundering case, an official statement said.

“Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Jammu Sub Zonal Office, has provisionally attached several immovable properties worth Rs 66.77 crore (approx) in the case of Bharat Papers Limited under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002,” the statement said, adding that the provisionally attached properties comprise factory land & building of Bharat Papers Limited and two residential houses of directors/relative of directors of Bharat Papers Limited.

The statement said that the ED initiated its investigation following an FIR registered by the CBI, ACB, Jammu, against Bharat Papers Limited and its Directors namely Anil Kumar, Parveen Kumar, Baljinder Kumar, and Rajinder Kumar, sons of late Jagdish Chander, for defrauding a consortium of banks led by State Bank of India to the tune of Rs 200 crore, on the basis of complaint filed by the then DGM, Stressed Asset Management Branch, State Bank of India, in Punjab’s Ludhiana.

“The ED investigation revealed that Bharat Papers Limited and its Directors did not use the loan amount for the intended purpose for which the loan was sanctioned. However, the funds were diverted through bogus/shell entities and bank accounts opened outside the consortium of banks,” it said.

“Further, the loan funds were also siphoned off by way of cash withdrawals directly from the loan accounts. Machine parts from the factory unit of Bharat Papers Limited were also stealthily removed and sold without the knowledge of the banks,” it added.

The ED statement said further investigation is underway.

Money laundering, hawala money rackets, and drug smuggling are on the radar of the security forces and the central investigation agencies, as it is believed that the funds thus generated in most cases are used to sustain terrorism in J&K.

–IANS

sq/vd