ED to attach more properties of absconding businessman Mittal
New Delhi : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will attach more properties of former Global Steel Holdings Ltd Chairman Pramod Kumar Mittal for allegedly defrauding government-owned State Trading Corporation (STC) of Rs 2,112 crore.
“The ED will attach more properties of Mittal in the coming days,” an agency source privy to the case investigation told IANS.
The agency has attached Mittal’s properties valued at Rs 245 crore in May last.
The source said that Mittal — the younger brother of steel baron Lakshmi Mittal — has not appeared before the agency since last year despite three summons.
“While looking for absconding diamond jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi in the Rs 12,600 crore Punjab National Bank fraud case, we stumbled upon Mittal’s case,” the source said.
He said the absconding businessman is currently in the United Kingdom and the agency has got to know his London address.
The CBI had registered a case against him and other officers of the STC on charge of defrauding the bank of Rs 2,112 crore.
On March 16, 2017, a case was registered on the basis of a complaint from STC against Mittal and former top officials of the company on charges of “criminal breach of trust” as he failed to make payments as per the terms and conditions of the agreement inked with the STC.
Besides Mittal, the Central Bureau of Investigation has also named Lalit Sehgal, the then Chief Executive Officer of GSPI, the then Chairman-cum-Managing Director of STC Arvind Pandalai and 18 other officers of the corporation.
The ED is probing the money laundering case against Pradeep Mittal on the basis of a case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in March last year.
According to the CBI FIR, the GSHL had sought financing facility from the STC for purchase of raw material for their Philippine-based steel plants on cash-and-carry basis.
The STC agreed to finance without allegedly checking the company’s financial health and thereby exposed itself to financial risk.
The official said the ED will coordinate with the CBI to get a Red Corner Notice issued against Mittal. According to an ED official, a Lookout Circular was issued against him last year.
The source said once the CBI files a charge sheet in the case, the ED too will file a prosecution complaint that is equivalent to a charge sheet. “After the prosecution case is filed, the ED will initiate the process of issuing the Red Corner Notice against Mittal through the Interpol,” he added.
IANS
