HC notice to ED on Amtek Dham's bail plea in INR-250-bln bank fraud case
This story was originally published at 15:01 IST on 10 February 2025
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NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court Monday issued notice to the Enforcement Directorate on Amtek Group former chairman Arvind Dham's bail plea in connection with a bank fraud case of more than INR 250 billion. Dham, 63, has sought bail saying he suffers from a medical condition. Seeking a medical status report from the jail authorities on Dham, the court placed the case for hearing on Feb. 20.
On Jul. 9, the probe agency had arrested Dham under provisions of money-laundering laws in the case of ACIL Ltd., an Amtek Group company. Subsequently, the Rouse Avenue court in Delhi had granted Dham's custody to the agency.
The Enforcement Directorate had initiated investigation on the basis of first information reports registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation, arising from 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 the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The directorate said its probe had revealed that the Amtek Group had defaulted on loans exceeding INR 250 billion from 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, the agency said.
Further investigations revealed that Dham was the beneficial owner of several benami properties in companies that had employees of the Amtek Group like peons, drivers, field staff and persons with no linkage to the group companies acting as directors, the agency said. Dham continued to possess such properties beneficially held by him and never disclosed this to any of the creditors, the agency added.
In December, the high court had upheld Dham's arrest by the Enforcement Directorate and the Rouse Avenue court's subsequent remand order. The high court had said that Dham's arrest was not against the provisions of Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, and that judicial review of the grounds for arrest does not invite an adverse inference. End
Reported by Surya Tripathi
Edited by Rajeev Pai
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