ED attaches Rs 31-crore aircraft of BPSL ex-CMD Sanjay Singal in bank fraud

The aircraft, a Cessna 525 A CJ 2+, belonging to Bhushan Airways Services Pvt. Ltd., a company "controlled and owned" by Singal, has been attached after a provisional order was issued under PMLA

The Enforcement Directorate has attached a Cessna jet worth about Rs 31 crore under the anti-money laundering law as part of its probe against former CMD of Bhushan Power and Steel Limited (BPSL) Sanjay Singal and others in connection with alleged bank loan fraud, officials said on Thursday.

The aircraft, a Cessna 525 A CJ 2+, belonging to Bhushan Airways Services Pvt. Ltd., a company "controlled and owned" by Singal, has been attached after a provisional order was issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Wednesday, the agency said in a statement.

The value of the jet is Rs 30.91 crore, it said.

The money laundering case against Singal and others stems from a CBI FIR registered in April, 2019.

"Sanjay Singal generated proceeds of crime through siphoning of loan funds from BPSL and layered it through various entities under his control and such proceeds of crime were used towards acquisition of the said aircraft as well as for repayment of the bank loan taken for acquiring the said aircraft," the agency alleged.

The ED had claimed earlier that a "criminal conspiracy was hatched to dishonestly and fraudulently divert huge amounts of bank funds through companies/shell companies and other entities and repayment of the loan amount was deliberately defaulted and inadmissible Cenvat credit was also claimed."

"They did not use the bank funds for the purpose for which the same were sanctioned, committed forgery for the purpose of cheating, used forged documents and falsified the accounts causing wrongful loss to the lending banks, financial institutions, government exchequer and corresponding wrongful gain to themselves," it had said.

It was alleged in the CBI FIR that BPSL availed various credit facilities from 33 different banks/financial institutions and the outstanding defaulted amount as on January 30, 2018 was Rs 47,204 crore, the ED said earlier.

BPSL and its directors "deliberately" defaulted in repayment of loan amounts to lender banks/financial institutions as per the time schedule and their accounts remained continuously irregular, it claimed.

Subsequently, it said, the lead bank in the consortium, Punjab National Bank (PNB), declared the account of BPSL as NPA (non-performing asset) on December 31, 2015, followed by the other banks/financial institutions.

Singal was arrested by the ED in November, 2019 and the agency later attached assets worth over Rs 4,423.36 crore and also filed a charge sheet before a court in this case naming 25 people.

He was granted bail by a Delhi court in January, 2020.