The Enforcement Directorate has attached 1,280 acres of land in the United States in connection with one of the biggest bank loan frauds in this country.
The unprecedented action pertains to land in California worth Rs 1,000 crore, owned by Zoom Developers. The company is owned by Vijay Chaudhary, who is absconding after taking loans worth Rs 2,200 crore from Indian banks ostensibly for realty projects in Europe which never materialised. Zoom had offices in Indore and Mumbai.
The ED alleges that Chaudhary siphoned off the entire loan amount. Last month, one of the directors of the company, Sharad Kabra, was arrested by the Indore ED. An arrest warrant has also been issued against Chaudhary.
The central agency tweeted the action taken.
ED Indore attaches under PMLA 1280 Acres of Land in California, USA of Zoom Developers Pvt Ltd and Vijay Choudhary in bank fraud case.
— ED (@dir_ed) July 2, 2015
ED officials said that it is for the first time that the agency had taken such an action in the US. Indore falls under the jurisdiction of ED, Ahmedabad. Officials said this was one of the biggest bank loan frauds in the country.
After suspecting the role played by some of the banks in granting loans, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had also initiated a separate probe.
(With agency inputs)
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