Officials said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) searched numerous locations in Mumbai, Pune, and Surat today in connection with a money laundering investigation against ABG Shipyard Ltd in a purported 22,842 crore bank loan fraud case.
According to them, the federal agency is searching as many as 26 locations in these cities under the criminal provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
After analysing a CBI FIR (case) against the erstwhile promoters of the shipbuilding company, the Enforcement Directorate filed a money laundering case in February.
ABG Shipyard Ltd, its then chairman and managing director Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal, and others were charged by the CBI with defrauding a consortium of banks of over Rs 22,842 crore.
It also named then-executive director Santhanam Muthaswamy, directors Ashwini Kumar, Sushil Kumar Agarwal, and Ravi Vimal Nevetia, as well as another company ABG International Pvt Ltd, for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, and abuse of official position in violation of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act.