The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested telecom equipment manufacturer VMC Systems Ltd’s managing director Vuppalapati Hima Bindu in a bank fraud case involving hundreds of crore of rupees.
An ED official said that it has arrested Bindu under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED case of money laundering is based on the FIR registered by CBI against the Hyderabad-based company and its directors over an alleged bank fraud case to the tune of Rs 1,700 crore, on the complaint of the Punjab National Bank (PNB) in 2018.
Advertisement
In its complaint to the CBI, the PNB alleged that the company had defaulted on repayment of loans worth Rs 1,700 crore to a consortium of banks.
It said that while Rs 539 crore was due to it from the company, over Rs 1,207 crore is pending towards the State Bank of India, the Corporation Bank, the Andhra Bank, and the JM Financial Assets Reconstruction Company.
ED officials said that they have established the money laundering with evidence in the investigation while pointed out that the directors of the company are not cooperating and are allegedly refusing to submit the documents related to the company. The probe agency said they are on the lookout for two other directors.”
According to the CBI, VMC Systems had availed working capital credit facilities on August 12, 2009, to the tune of Rs 1,010.50 crore. Initially, the CBI’s FIR had named VMC system directors Vuppalapati Hima Bindu, Vuppalapa Venkat Rama Rao and Bhagavatula Venkat Ramana.
With IANS inputs