New Delhi, Jan 12 (FN Agency) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested five persons in connection with an alleged Rs 56,000 crore bank loan fraud against Bhushan Steel Limited. As per the ED, the five persons arrested are the former vice president of banking of the company, former VP accounts Pankaj Kumar Agarwal, ex-chief financial officer Nitin Johri, Ajay Mittal, the brother-in-law of former promoter Neeraj Singal, and Ajay Mittal’s wife and sister of Neeraj Singal, Archana Mittal.
They were arrested on Thursday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA, 2002). ED said the arrested persons were produced before the Special Court, PMLA, and the court had granted ED custody for 3 days. The ED said Bhushan Steel Limited’s former Managing Director Neeraj Singal and his associates formed several shell companies, and the promoters and entities linked to BSL “rotated funds from one company to another through a chain of multiple entities” as part of an alleged bank loan fraud. The agency also seized Rs 72 lakh in cash, foreign currency, and three luxury cars with an acquisition value of Rs 4 crore during the raids. Singal was arrested by the ED in June of this year, and he is currently in judicial custody. It had also attached assets worth Rs 61.38 crore in this case.