HYDERABAD: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has provisionally attached movable and immovable properties worth Rs 12.11 crore belonging to Nirmal Kotecha, Pavan Kuchana, and Kishore Tapadia under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 in the case of Initial Public Offer (IPO) scam of M/s Taksheel Solutions Limited, Hyderabad.
The agency began the investigation based on a complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) under the provisions of the SEBI Act, 1992 against M/s Taksheel Solutions Limited, its promoters/directors, and others for irregularities in the IPO of 55,00,000 shares of Rs 10 each for which issue price was fixed at Rs 150 and through which M/s Taksheel raised Rs 80.50 crore.
The ED probe revealed that Pavan Kuchana, Nirmal Kotecha, and Kishore Tapadia formulated a devious strategy to inflate the revenue of M/s Taksheel Solutions Limited for issuing IPO and subsequently siphoned off the IPO proceeds. To facilitate the issue of IPO, Nirmal Kotecha arranged for Inter-Corporate Deposits (ICDs) of Rs 34.50 crore to M/s Taksheel Solutions Ltd.
The funds were rotated through US-based entities belonging to Pavan and circular transactions were done with the firm before the IPO which resulted in incremental revenue and corresponding inflation of profitability. The ICDs were repaid from the IPO proceeds. The ED’s investigation further revealed that of the IPO proceeds of Rs 80.50 crore, an amount of Rs 34.50 crore was diverted and siphoned off to US-based entities of Pavan Kuchana on the pretext of payment for supply of services.
From these US-based entities, an amount of Rs 30.15 crore was further transferred to Singapore/Hong Kong-based entities under the control of Nirmal Kotecha.
Of the IPO proceeds, another amount of Rs 23 crore was transferred to Indian entities in the guise of the purchase of software products and was eventually transferred to Nirmal Kotecha’s entities based in Hong Kong and Dubai. Proceeds of the crime of Rs 18 crore were transferred from M/s Taksheel Solutions Ltd. to various individuals/entities on the pretext of IPO-related expenses, payments to vendors, STPI development expenses, salaries, etc.
Earlier the ED had arrested all three accused -- Nirmal Kotecha, Pavan Kumar Kuchana, and Kishore Tapadia. Nirmal Kotecha and Kishore Tapadia were granted bail by the Telangana High Court on 6 December 2023 and Pavan Kuchana is still in judicial custody.