The Enforcement Directorate (ED) put on freeze bank accounts under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 after searches in three places on Wednesday of West Bengal-based Rashmi Group of Companies.
The central agency is probing the company and its promoters in a case related to the loss of Rs73.40 crore to the public exchequer by ‘deliberate mishandling the facts and misusing the dual freight policy of Indian railways to avail wrongful benefits of a lower tariff of freight for transportation of iron ore’, ED statement said.
The Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) has already lodged an FIR against the Rashmi Group of companies, which includes Rashmi Cement and Rashmi Metallic. After which, the Enforcement Department swung into action.
After the search operation by ED, Rs 64.97 crore lying in bank accounts of the companies have been frozen and cash worth Rs 1.01 crore have been seized from the searched premises, the ED said in a tweet today.
Its products and services range from DI pipes, TMT bars, pig iron, wire rods, MS billets, sponge iron, sinter, ferro alloys, pellet plant and cement to laptops, netbooks, all-in-one PCs and also dredging. It exports 4 billion TPA iron ore fines to China and South East Asian countries, and mineral based products to other parts of the world.
The group turnover has reached a level of around Rs 12,000 crore and it has built a net worth of Rs 6,000 crore.
Recently, the company has also started dredging operations in Damodar River and sand excavation from river bed with heavy earth moving machinery in Burdwan West district.
So far, there has been no official statement issued by the company about the latest ED move.