ED attaches 67 windmills, assets worth Rs 113 cr of Surana Group

CHENNAI: The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday said it has provisionally attached 67 windmills worth over Rs 51 crore as part of a money laundering investigation against the city-based Surana Group linked to an alleged Rs 3,986 crore bank loan fraud.

The action was taken after it was found that 67 windmills worth Rs 51.69 crore of Surana Group, which were being auctioned by banks to recover their dues, were again purchased in the name of one benami company.

Another set of immovable properties valued at Rs 61.63 crore of Ramlal Jain, who “amalgamated” the proceeds of crime into his regular business, were also attached as part of the same order, it said in a release.

The total value of attached properties stands at Rs 113.32 crore.

The ED, last month, arrested four people in this case including two promoters of Surana Group and two alleged shell company directors.

They included Dinesh Chand Surana and Vijay Raj Surana, both managing directors-cum-promoters of Surana Industries Ltd, Surana Power Ltd and Surana Corporation Ltd and P Anand and I Prabhakaran, dummy directors of shell companies.

They are in judicial custody at present. The Serious Fraud Investigation office in Chennai had also arrested Rahul Surana, son of Dinesh Chand Surana in connection with the Rs 8,000 crore loan fraud.

The money laundering probe stems from three CBI FIRs filed against the accused in 2020 that alleged that these three companies, along with their promoters, directors and unknown individuals indulged in misappropriation and criminal breach of trust, manipulation of books of accounts through fictitious entities and routing of funds through shell companies.

The CBI complaint charged that the accused siphoned off funds from the company’s accounts for their personal gains causing a loss to the tune of Rs 3,986 crore to public sector banks.