ED attaches properties of AP businessman

ED initiated investigation under the PMLA based on an FIR of CBI Visakhapatnam unit against Prasad, managing partner of PBR Poultry Tech and other partners for defrauding IOB

Hyderabad: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached 21 immovable properties of Polepalli Venkata Prasad, his family members and deposits of Rs.50 lakh with Meliora Asset Reconstruction Company, totaling to Rs 7.57 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act-2002 (PMLA) in a bank loan fraud case.

The attached assets were in Tanuku, West Godavari of Andhra Pradesh. The ED initiated investigation under the PMLA based on an FIR of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Visakhapatnam unit against Prasad, managing partner of PBR Poultry Tech and other partners for defrauding Indian Overseas Bank, Veerabhadrapuram branch, Tanuku, to the tune of Rs 7.34 crore, according to a press release.

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Investigation revealed that PBR Poultry Tech had availed a term loan of Rs 5.6 crore from the bank by grossly inflating the value of the mortgaged properties in collusion with panel advocates. Prasad also obtained Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro & Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) loans in the name of his associates to the tune of Rs 1.74 crore, ED officials said.

The loan amounts were diverted and not repaid causing a loss of Rs 7.34 crore to the bank. Investigation also revealed that the accused availed a term loan of Rs 6.73 crore and cash credit of Rs 3.2 crore in the name of a shell company PBR Agritech Private Limited from Andhra Bank, Venkatayapuram Branch, Tanuku, by again inflating the value of the mortgaged properties in collusion with panel advocates.

These loans were taken on the pretext of construction of a poultry shed, but instead the money was siphoned off and diverted to the main accused who, in turn, used the money to introduce share capital and machinery in PBR Poultry Tech.

The Andhra Bank loan has also become NPA, the officials said, adding that the accused had thus generated total proceeds of crime worth Rs 17.27 crore.

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