Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached assets worth Rs 184.68 crore belonging to Udaipur-based CA Bharat Bomb and others in the alleged Syndicate bank fraud worth over Rs 1,000 crore.

The attached assets seized belong to Bharat Bomb, Shankar Lal Khandelwal, Santosh Kumar Gupta and Deshraj Meena among others, along with assets of their family members. The seized property owners however, claim that their properties were purchased from Bharat Bomb under bona fide business arrangements.  The properties, however have come under the scanner and will be dealt with in due course  This however, does not mean that the above named individuals were under any liaision with the main accused.

This is the second attachment of assets. ED had earlier attached assets in this case in Dec 2016. Total attached properties now stand at Rs 302.66 Cr.

The attachment order was released under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and include freezing of a hotel, real estate projects and large pieces of prime agricultural and commercial lands.

ED had termed Bharat Bomb and bank manager Gupta as the master minds in the Rs 1000 Cr fraud case and had filed a criminal complaint on basis of FIR by CBI in Mar 2016.

Readers may recall that this fraud was carried out by inter-linking fraudulent transactions between 3 branches by discounting of forged cheques, forged inland bills and availing Overdraft facility against non existing LIC policies.