ED arrests 2 directors of Delhi-based multi-national rice firm under PMLA

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said it has arrested two directors of a Delhi-based rice company under the anti-money laundering law in a bank-loan fraud case of Rs 1,200 crore involving a consortium of lenders led by the Canara Bank.

Aparna Puri and Rahul Sood, also the key managerial persons of Amira Pure Foods Private Limited (APFPL), were taken into custody on October 8.

A special court dealing with cases lodged under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Delhi sent them to the ED's custody till October 11, the federal agency said in a statement.

The money-laundering case stems from a 2020 FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against APFPL, Karan A Chanana, Radhika Chanana, Anita Daing, Aparna Puri, Rahul Sood and others for allegedly committing fraud, criminal misappropriation, criminal breach of trust, cheating etc. and causing wrongful loss to the tune of Rs 1,201.85 crore to the consortium of banks.

 

According to the ED, "key accused" in the case like Karan A Chanana, Anita Daing, Radhika Chanana and Rajesh Arora are "absconding" from India.

Karan A Chanana is the head of the global rice brand Amira that has business in the US, the UK, the UAE, Germany, Mauritius and some other countries, it said.

The accused entities, in connivance with each other as well as with other related and unrelated entities, "illegally diverted" loan funds sanctioned by the consortium of banks by way of transferring money into the accounts of various shell entities that had dummy directors and through entry providers under the guise of genuine business transactions, the agency alleged.

The ED carried out searches in the case in May last year and apart from seizing more than Rs 1 crore, attached assets worth Rs 131 crore of the company, Rahul Sood and others, including large land parcels located in Karnal and Faridabad cities of Haryana and residential properties in Delhi and Gurugram.

"Investigation in the assets held in the UK, the UAE in the name of other entity, family member is in progress," the agency said.

After the 2023 raids, the agency had said in a statement that Karan A Chanana had donated GBP 250,000 to a political party in the United Kingdom since 2019 through a subsidiary company of APFPL.