HYDERABAD: Enforcement Directorate, Hyderabad, on Thursday arrested top electronics company PCH Corporation Limited promoter and director Balvinder Singh in a case relating to defrauding banks to the tune of Rs 370 crore.
Singh was arrested on Tuesday and produced before the PMLA special court on Wednesday. He was remanded in judicial custody till February 23. Singh, who is also director of several PCH group companies, was arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The accused fraudulently availed credit facilities by submitting fake documents to show higher turnover and then diverted the loans. Further, two more FIRs were registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation in Bengaluru and Chennai against the PCH group companies.
ED investigation revealed that PCH group companies had availed loans from various public sector and private banks but failed to repay. Loans were diverted through shell firms with the help of chartered accountants and entry operators in Hyderabad and Mumbai.
This amount was brought back to PCH group companies to show a rosy picture about the financial health of PCH group, to avail more loans and for an intended initial public offering.
ED said some of the money was diverted into the personal account of Singh and his family members and relatives. Probe revealed that Singh received 54 crore from various shell entities which had no genuine business activity but were used only for rotation of money.
ED said: “These amounts were projected by Singh as unsecured loans. The source of these funds is nothing but the siphoned-off loan and they were utilised to purchase properties in the name of his companies as well as in personal capacities which were later mortgaged to the banks for availing more credit facilities. These unsecured loans have not been repaid till date.”
The ED booked a PMLA case against the accused company based on an FIR registered by the CBI economic offences wing of Chennai.
The CBI, which filed a chargesheet earlier, said PCH Agencies Private Limited, PCH Lifestyle Private Limited and Singh caused wrongful loss to Punjab and Sind Bank, George Town branch in Chennai.
