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Hans India
a day ago
- Business
- Hans India
SC to hear on Monday plea of Amtek Group promoter seeking interim bail
The Supreme Court is slated to hear on Monday a plea of Amtek Group promoter Arvind Dham seeking interim bail in connection with a money laundering case. As per the causelist published on the website of the apex court, a bench of Justices Sandeep Mehta and Prasanna B. Varale will take up the matter for hearing on June 16. Earlier, the Delhi High Court had turned down the prayer to release Dham on interim bail pending the disposal of his regular bail application. Dham's counsel argued that he had been languishing in custody for 11 months, and his regular bail application was pending for adjudication before the Delhi HC since February 2025. Opposing the prayer for interim bail till the disposal of the regular bail application, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had contended that the agency did not seek a single adjournment and there was no ground for the grant of interim bail. The ED referred to the apex court's April 7 decision, which had refused to extend Dham's interim bail on medical grounds. In its order passed on May 30, a bench of Justice Ravinder Dudeja recorded that the regular bail application could not be decided partly because of the reason of change of roster and subsequently because of the filing of the interim bail application on medical grounds, which was dealt on number of dates, and thereafter because of the lengthy arguments on the bail application. "Since the matter is already part-heard on merits, I do not deem it appropriate to grant interim bail to the applicant/accused. However, keeping in view the question of liberty of the applicant/accused being involved, the date is preponed to 15.07.2025," he ordered. The ED initiated an investigation based on the Supreme Court's order on February 27, 2024, while hearing a PIL against Amtek Auto group of companies, which directed the federal anti-money laundering agency to investigate the case involving bank fraud by Amtek Auto Group to the tune of Rs 27,000 crore. The top court expressed concerns regarding the diversion of public money, emphasising the necessity of a comprehensive money laundering investigation by the ED, even if the banks concerned had settled the accounts. Multiple FIRs were lodged by the CBI arising from the complaints by IDBI Bank and the Bank of Maharashtra under various sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, on allegations of illegally diverting bank loans by causing wrongful loss to the banks. In the course of the investigation, the ED provisionally attached movable and immovable properties valued at Rs 557.49 crore under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The probe revealed that the financial statements of group companies were deceitfully manipulated to obtain additional fraudulent loans and create bogus assets and investments in the books of accounts. The ED had earlier conducted searches at more than 40 locations and subsequently arrested Dham and filed a prosecution complaint on September 6, 2024.
India Gazette
30-05-2025
- Business
- India Gazette
Delhi HC denies interim bail to Arvind Dham in money laundering case
New Delhi [India], May 30 (ANI): The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to grant interim bail to Arvind Dham in a money laundering case in view of allegations against him. He has been in custody since July 2024. His regular bail has been pending before the High Court since February 2025. The Enforcement Directorate (ED)'s allegation is that there are multiple thousand crores of proceeds of crime. Justice Ravinder Dudeja refused to grant interim bail in view of the seriousness of the allegations levelled against him. However, the court has expedited the bail hearing and listed the matter on July 15. Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa submitted that Dham should be granted interim bail during the pendency of his petition, which has been pending since February 2025. He has been in custody for the past 11 months and has a history of medical illness. Special counsel Zoheb Hossain opposed the submissions made on behalf of the accused. Special public prosecutor (SPP) Manish Jain, along with Snehal Shard, appeared for the ED. The bench refused to grant him the relief. Dham was arrested in July 2024 by the ED in a money laundering case linked to alleged bank fraud. Earlier, the CBI had registered a case against the Amtek group. There are allegations of bank fraud of around Rs. 20,000 crores. On June 20, 2024, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at 35 places in Delhi, NCR, and Maharashtra against Amtek Group in connection with a huge bank fraud case involving more than Rs 20,000 crores in several listed companies. These companies were finally taken over in an NCLT proceeding at a nominal price, leaving a consortium of banks with a nominal recovery. Raids were conducted across Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Mumbai and Nagpur under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Amtek Group led by Arvind Dham, Gautam Malhotra and others. The alleged fraud led to a massive loss to the exchequer of approximately Rs 10-15 thousand crores, said the ED. ED investigation started based on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) First Information Report (FIR) in one of the group entities, ACIL Limited, and as per the Supreme Court's directions to investigate the fraud. Further, ED said its investigation revealed that loan funds were siphoned off to invest in real estate, foreign investment, and new ventures. As per the agency, fictitious sales, capital assets, debtors and profit were shown in group concerns to get more loans so that it doesn't get NPA. (ANI)
