ED to attach Rs 12 crore assets of ex-bank employees

Vijayapura, and five others, under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in a cheating case.
For representational purposes
For representational purposes

BENGALURU: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a prosecution complaint against Vijayasarathi, former cluster manager of ICICI Bank, Vijayapura, and five others, under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in a cheating case.

“Vijayasarathi and his associates have acquired the proceeds of crime by cheating ICICI Bank and have layered it in the form of various movable and immovable properties,” said an official spokesperson.  The agency will attach assets of the accused worth around Rs 12.11 crore, which include immovable properties in Bengaluru, Vijayapura, Belagavi and Udupi districts worth Rs 5.31 crore and movable assets like cash, bank accounts totalling Rs 6.53 crore and gold and silver jewellery worth Rs 27 lakh,” added the spokesperson.

The ED had initiated a money-laundering investigation based on the four FIRs, which were registered at the APMC police station, Vijayapura and the FIRs were transferred to the CID for investigation. The CID had filed the chargesheet against the accused under Sections 120B, 201, 409, 465, 468, 471, 477A read with Section 36 of the IPC before the jurisdictional court in Vijayapura.

Investigations revealed that Vijayasarathi and other employees of ICICI Bank – Sachin Annappa Patil, Renuka Shetty, Sudeep Shetty, Sajjade Peeran Mushrif and Vijayendra had committed fraud of Rs 70.44 crore by using cancelled cheques, unused cheques, through fraudulent transfers, issuing fake fixed deposit receipts, not crediting the cash which was received for credit in the bank accounts of ICICI Bank, BDCC bank, Siddeshwara Co-operative Bank.

Probe against former insurance firm staffer
The ED has also filed a prosecution complaint (PC) against T Pradeep, former administrative officer of Oriental Insurance Company Ltd (OICL), Dharwad, under PMLA. “Pradeep had acquired the proceeds of crime by misusing his authority in OICL and had transferred the company’s fund to third-party beneficiaries and layered the proceeds of crime in the form of movable property. 

Pradeep had committed fraud of Rs 5.03 crore by transferring funds from the company’s account to third parties between July 2, 2013 and March 26, 2014. The third-party beneficiaries were fictitious and most of the amount transferred was withdrawn in cash from different ATMs across India,” the ED stated. The agency had initiated a money laundering investigation based on an FIR registered by the ACB of the CBI Bengaluru, on April 12, 2014.

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