New Delhi [India], August 19 : The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed the bail plea of businessman Arvind Dham, an accused in a money laundering case related to an alleged multi-thousand-crore bank fraud.
Justice Ravinder Dudeja rejected the plea after hearing arguments from both the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the counsel for the accused. The detailed order of judgment is yet to be uploaded by the court.
Earlier, the High Court had refused to grant interim bail to Dham. He has been in custody since July 2024.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged that there are multi-thousand crores of proceeds of crime.
Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa had submitted that Dham should be granted interim bail. He has been in custody since July 2024. He has a history of medical illness.
Special counsel Zoheb Hossain had opposed the submissions made on behalf of the accused.
Special public prosecutor (SPP) Manish Jain, alongwith Snehal Sharda, had appeared for ED.
Dham was arrested in July 2024 by the ED in a money laundering case linked to alleged bank fraud.
Earlier, the CBI had registered a case against the Amtek group. There are allegations of bank fraud of around Rs. 20000 crores.
On June 20, 2024, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at 35 places in Delhi, NCR and Maharashtra against Amtek Group in connection with huge bank fraud case of more than Rs 20,000 crores in a number of listed companies which were finally taken over in NCLT proceeding at nominal price, leaving consortium of banks with nominal recovery.
Raids were conducted across Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Mumbai and Nagpur under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on the Amtek Group led by Arvind Dham, Gautam Malhotra and others.
The alleged fraud led to a huge loss to the exchequer of approximately Rs 10-15 thousand crores, said the ED.
The ED investigation started based on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) First Information Report (FIR) in one of the group entities, ACIL Limited, and as per the Supreme Court directions to investigate the fraud.
Further, ED had said its investigation revealed that loan funds were siphoned off to invest in real estate, foreign investment and investment in new ventures.
According to the agency, fictitious sales, capital assets, debtors, and profits were reported in group concerns to secure more loans and avoid becoming an NPA.