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Informist, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court has upheld the arrest of Amtek group former chairman Arvind Dham by the Enforcement Directorate and a Delhi court's subsequent remand order in connection with a bank fraud case of more than INR 250 billion. The high court said that the arrest of Dham was not against the provisions of Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, and that judicial review of the ground for arrest does not invite an adverse inference.

 

All grounds can be contested by Dham at the stage of plea of bail, and the court may have a larger canvas before itself to consider the petitioner's plea, if and when taken up, said Justice Anish Dayal. The aspect of non-cooperation of the petitioner may not be relevant, considering there is a right against self-incrimination provided by the Constitution of India, Justice Dayal added.

 

On Jul. 9, the probe agency had arrested Dham under the provisions of money laundering law in the case of ACIL Ltd., an Amtek group company. Subsequently, the Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi granted custody of Dham to the probe agency. 

 

The Enforcement Directorate had initiated investigation on the basis of first information reports registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation, arising from the complaints by IDBI Bank and Bank of Maharashtra. The complainants had alleged diversion of bank loans through cheating, fraud, and criminal breach of trust and causing wrongful loss to the bank under various sections of Indian Penal Code, 1860 and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. 

 

The Enforcement Directorate said that its probe revealed that Amtek group had defaulted on the loans exceeding INR 250 billion of more than 15 banks. The group companies namely ARG Ltd., ACIL, Amtek Auto Ltd., Metalic Forging Ltd. and Castex Technologies Ltd. along with other group concerns were taken to insolvency, whose resolution led to a haircut of more than 80% for banks, causing substantial loss to the financial system, said the agency. 

 

Further, investigations also revealed that Arvind Dham was the beneficial owner of several benami properties in companies with employees of the Amtek Group like peons, drivers, field boys and persons with no linkage to the group companies, acting as directors, the agency said. Arvind Dham has continued to possess such properties beneficially held by him and never disclosed it to any of the banks and creditors, the agency added.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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