The Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a case and raided seven locations in the city and one in Faridabad, as part of a money laundering probe, days after the CBI arrested the former CMD and a former GM of Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited.
The former CMD George Kuruvilla is allegedly accused of sanctioning and disbursing the loan of Rs 50 crore loan to The Green Billions Limited (TGBL) in exchange for a Rs 3 crore bribe.The loan was sanctioned for the Pune Waste Management Project of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), for which TGBL submitted a fake Performance Bank Guarantee (PBG) of Rs 25 crore. However, the firm neither utilized the loan amount for the sanctioned purpose nor repaid the loan to BECIL.Instead, the funds were diverted to various entities and individuals unrelated to the PMC waste management project, and no project was implemented.
According to ED officials, the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) was registered based on the offence filed by the CBI. During its investigation, the CBI found that in 2022, the accused were identified as Kuruvilla, former General Manager W.B. Prasad, then Legal Advisor Ashish Pratap Singh, former Consultant Sudhir Chauhan, CEO and Founder of M/s TGBL Prateek Kanakia, among others.
“In furtherance of this conspiracy, Kuruvilla sanctioned and facilitated the disbursement of a Rs 50 crore venture loan to M/s The Green Billions Limited (TGBL) and received an undue advantage of Rs 3 crore from co-accused Prateek Kanakia,” CBI officials stated.
Officials alleged that Kanakia siphoned off the entire Rs 50 crore. In mid-2024, Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL), a public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, filed a complaint after which a case was registered in September 2024 under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act for conspiracy, cheating, and forgery.
In March, the CBI arrested Kanakia, followed by the arrests of Kuruvilla and Prasad last week. Meanwhile, the ED also launched a PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) investigation and, after analyzing the money trail and the proceeds of the crime, conducted searches at seven locations in Mumbai and one in Faridabad.
“Searches were conducted to trace the proceeds of crime and gather the incriminating evidence required for the PMLA investigation,” said ED officials.
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