ED attaches multi-crore assets in railway freight charge ‘fraud’ case

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday said it has attached properties worth Rs 2.67 crore as part of a money laundering investigation against a Guwahati-based company and its promoter in a railway freight charges and GST “evasion” case.

A four-storey commercial building and another immovable property located in Gurugram (Haryana) of companies named Vinayak Logistics India, Vinayak Logistics and their owner and director, Pravesh Kabra, have been provisionally attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED case stems from a chargesheet filed by the CBI in a case where it was alleged that the accused “wilfully” misdeclared high-freight commodities such as marble powder, waste marble powder and dolomite as low-freight goods like alum powder and putty, the federal probe agency said in a statement.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed an FIR in this case in August 2023.

The accused unlawfully reduced their cargo liability and this “calculated manipulation” resulted in “substantial” evasion of railway freight charges apart from the applicable Goods and Services Tax (GST), causing a “significant” loss to the Railways, the ED alleged.

These illicit monetary gains, quantified at Rs 16.15 crore, were “deliberately siphoned off” and “layered” into the personal bank accounts of Kabra, the agency claimed.

The proceeds of crime (illicit funds under PMLA) were laundered and utilised by the accused for acquisition of immovable properties, like the ones attached, and for funding personal and business expenditures, the ED alleged.

It said the case involved a deliberate, systematic and large-scale fraud on the Indian Railways.

“The investigation is continuing to identify further assets and additional persons involved in the laundering of illicit proceeds,” the ED said. (PTI)