Businessman Gautam Thapar-owned Avantha Group’s real estate worth more than ₹678 crore has been attached by the Enforcement Directorate in a ₹2,435 crore-worth loan fraud case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED said in a statement on Thursday that a provisional order under the PMLA has been issued to attach the company’s properties located in Haryana, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand. According to the agency, the assets belong to various companies of Avantha Group, “owned and controlled” by industrialist Gautam Thapar.

“On 19.08.2019, CG Power and Industrial Solutions Ltd had made disclosure under Regulation 30 of the SEBI (listing obligations and disclosure requirements) Regulations, 2015, to Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) regarding findings which had potential implications on the financial position of the company.

“The disclosure made by CG Power and Industrial Solutions Ltd revealed that assets and liabilities of the company have been understated considerably,” the ED said.

The agency also found out that advances to related parties and unrelated parties were understated, certain assets provided as collateral, company was made a co-borrower and/or guarantor for enabling financing of loans which were immediately routed out of the company without due authorisation.

Lender banks took notice of the disclosure, as per the ED, after a complaint made by the State Bank of India (SBI). The ED swung to probe money laundering aspect of the case booked initially by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in June 2021 against CG Power and Industrial Solution Ltd., Gautam Thapar, KN Neelkanth, Madhav Acharya, B Hariharan, Omkar Goswami and unknown public servant(s) and private person(s) for allegedly indulging in a “bank fraud” to cheat a consortium of banks to the tune of ₹2,435 crore.

The anti-money laundering agency had earlier attached assets worth more than Rs 14 crore and filed a prosecution complaint under the PMLA. Other than that, ED had arrested Madhav Acharya, a “key managerial personnel” of the company.

The ED stated that it was later detected that ₹1,307.06 crore have been “diverted” to Avantha Group companies by availing loans.

“Without the due authorisation” of the board, most of these funds have been paid. Ultimately funds paid to Avantha Group companies remained outstanding, ED said.