ABG Shipyard: ED attaches assets worth Rs 2747.69 cr in bank fraud case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth Rs 2747.69 crore in the multi-crore bank fraud case involving ABG Shipyard Limited case. The attached assets include Shipyard at Surat and Dahej located in Gujarat, agricultural lands and plots, and various commercial and residential premises in Gujarat and Maharashtra. The attached assets also included bank accounts owned by ABG Shipyard Ltd., its group companies, and other related entities.

The ED initiated a money laundering investigation on the basis of the FIR dated February 7, 2022 registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against ABG Shipyard Limited and others. The CBI on Wednesday arrested the founder of the company, Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal, under whom the alleged illegal transactions took place.

The ED investigation revealed that ABG Shipyard Ltd and its chairman and managing director Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal availed various credit facilities and loans from a consortium including ICICI Bank, Mumbai on the pretext of meeting its capital requirements and other business expenses but ABG Shipyard misappropriated the credit facilities availed from the consortium.

The company diverted the funds for purposes other than the mentioned cause to various related entities incorporated in India and abroad, which eventually caused a monetary loss of over Rs. 22,842 crores to the consortium.

The ED has traced assets belonging to ABG Shipyard Ltd along with its group companies, Bermaco Energy Systems Ltd, Dhananjay Datar, Savita Dhananjay Datar, Krishna Gopal Toshniwal, Viren Ahuja, and attached them under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

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