ED attaches Rs 263 cr assets of Deccan Chronicle group

Hyderabad, March 28
The Enforcement Directorate Tuesday attached assets worth Rs 263.10 crore of Hyderabad-based Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited (DCHL) in a bank loan fraud case.

The properties, including movable and immovable assets, shares, bank balances, foreign currency receivables and luxurious cars, were attached under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)

These properties are other than the properties pledged to banks by DCHL, the ED said in its provisional order.

The bank loan fraud caused a loss of Rs 1,161.93 crore to 6 public sector banks -- Canara Bank, Andhra Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Central Bank of India, Corporation Bank and IDBI Bank.

The ED had booked a case under the PMLA against the company and others based on a FIR and chargesheet by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The CBI registered the FIR for criminal conspiracy and other provisions for causing wrongful loss of Rs 357.77 crore to Canara Bank.

The CBI registered five more FIRs relating to five PSU Banks and filed 6 chargesheets.

The DCHL had allegedly availed loans by overstating the receivables, under-stating huge loan liabilities by furnishing fabricated financial statements and not disclosing the loans.

In all, it availed 111 loans amounting to Rs 10,000 crore from 16 different banks during 2004 to 2012.

Of this, Rs 2,800 crore is outstanding to various banks as on September 2012 excluding interest.

These loans were used for other than the specified purposes, investing in 20 group companies and firms, acquiring companies with huge premiums, payments to Airbus towards purchase of cargo aircraft and payments to BCCI for Indian Premier League franchisee of Deccan Chargers.

The loans were also used payments towards dividends declared by DCHL, buy-back of shares, issue of bonus shares, purchase of luxurious cars in the name of associates/group companies, repayment of earlier loans taken, among others

According to ED, the group companies of DCHL acquired movable and immovable properties with the loan received from DCHL and did not disclose the same in the audited balance sheet of the companies concerned with a view to obscuring the identity of such properties which amounted to money laundering.