BHUBANESWAR: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday attached `379 crore assets of two firms in connection with the Rs 2,000 crore Uliburu Mining scam.
Factories, land and buildings of Deepak Steel and Power Ltd as well as Snehapusha Marketing Pvt Ltd in Odisha, West Bengal and Delhi were attached by the ED.
Besides, deposits in the bank accounts have also been confiscated. The assets belonged to Deepak Gupta and his father Hari Charan Gupta.
Earlier in July last year, the ED had registered a case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act against the company and arrested two officials, including Gupta, basing on an FIR registered by the State Vigilance.
Located in Joda mining circle of Keonjhar district, Uliburu Mines was termed as “one of the biggest illegal minings ever” by the Justice M B Shah Commission, which was probing into the mining scam.
Gupta, the power of attorney (PoA) holder of Uliburu Mines, was accused of raising ore from the reserve forest adjacent to the mines by shifting the lease boundary. While B K Mohanty was the original lessee of Uliburu iron ore and manganese mines, Gupta had taken the PoA and illegally mined around 45.22 lakh tonne of iron ore from Uliburu reserve forest and gained `893.67 crore as profit during 2003-2010, the Vigilance chargesheet had revealed.
The ED had arrested Deepak Gupta and his associate S Rout last year, while the Vigilance had also filed a chargesheet against 23 persons and two firms before a Keonjhar court in January, 2014. The agency also attached `84 crore assets of Artha Tatwa Group, the first attachment of the property of the ponzi firm by the ED, on the day.
The immovable assets included 100-acre land located in Bhubaneswar, Khurda, Chhatrapur and Jagatsinghpur. Most of the real estate property were owned by AT Group chief Pradeep Sethy and Directors Sambit Khuntia and Sriksrushna Padhy.
Land in Chhatrapur were benami property, the ED sources said.