Mumbai: A special PMLA court has refused bail to Vijay Gupta, builder and head of Vindhyavasini Group of Companies, accused of laundering ₹764.44 crore obtained through fraudulent credit facilities from banks.
Special Judge RB Rote observed, “Just because the loan was secured through mortgaged properties and partially repaid, bail cannot be granted.”
Gupta was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 26 in connection with CBI cases alleging he defrauded SBI by securing loans using forged and fabricated documents.
Gupta while seeking bail claimed that he has been falsely implicated in the case. It is further submitted that more than sufficient collateral was given to the bank while procuring the said loan.
“Before the loan accounts were declared as NPA, Gupta had already repaid a sum of Rs 346 crore and after being released on bail an additional sum of Rs 140 crore has been secured by the bank. Therefore, out of the total loan of Rs 805 crore, the bank has already received a sum of Rs 486 crore which brings the balance principal amount to Rs 321 crore. The bank still has several mortgaged properties of the applicant which are more than sufficient to secure the balance amount,” the defence had argued.
The ED prosecutor Arvind Aghav had argued that total six cases have been lodged by CBI against Gupta. It is further submitted that during the process to avail loan, various forged documents were submitted to the bank.
The court after hearing the arguments, observed, “It prima-facie shows that there is sufficient evidence collected by the ED to prima-facie come to the conclusion that the applicant who is promoter and managing director of Vindhyavasini Group of Companies was actually involved in the offence of money laundering.”
