Bail refused for Kutch businessman who caused 150cr loss to bank

A special PMLA court denied bail to businessman Ramchand Issrani, arrested for money laundering involving ₹149.89 crore from Union Bank of India.

MUMBAI: A special PMLA court on Friday rejected the bail plea of Ramchand Issrani, a 64-year-old businessman from Gujarat, who was arrested in a money laundering case for allegedly cheating Union Bank of India. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) in August last year, for laundering money amounting to ₹149.89 crore from Union Bank of India.

Bail refused for Kutch businessman who caused 150cr loss to bank

In 2021, CBI had booked him for misappropriating funds and cheating Union Bank of India, for which the trial will take place in Gujrat High Court. The ED probe against Issrani and his firm, Associate High Pressure Technologies Pvt Ltd (AHPTPL), based on CBI’s complaint, revealed that the company had defaulted on loan repayment. Subsequently, this loan account was declared a non-performing asset (NPA) in January 2016, and eventually the account was classified as fraud in December 2019. According to the agency, over ₹90.46 crore of the loan amount remained outstanding.

It claimed that AHPTPL had fraudulently obtained four fictitious letters of credit (LCs) to the tune of ₹7.5 crore, in favour of Induja Traders Pvt Ltd. They did this by fabricating invoices. The proceeds of crime were layered into the bank account of Issrani’s firm. The firm cheated Union Bank of India by withdrawing unsecured loans, and misappropriating funds by diverting it through SBI and UCO banks, which was in contravention of the terms and conditions of the loan sanction orders.

Issrani had sought bail on the grounds of parity and long period of incarceration. Pointing out how Manoharlal Agicha, one of the co-accused, was granted bail by the Bombay high court, his lawyers said his arrest was discriminatory as Agicha was charge-sheeted without arrest. They also said since he had spent more than 14 months in jail, he deserved to be released on bail.

His bail plea said that since ED had already filed a complaint and there was no likelihood of the trial commencing soon.

The prosecution submitted that Issrani along with other directors were responsible for managing day-to-day affairs of the company and he was one of the masterminds behind the offence.

Special judge AC Daga rejected the plea, observing that Issrani’s case was different from that of Agicha, who fell sick and infirm. The court said that Issrani had approached the high court seeking stay in the predicate offence that CBI booked him for. “Considering the fact that Hon’ble Gujarat High Court has stayed trial of predicate offence at the instance of the applicant/accused then it does not lie in the mouth of the applicant/accused to say that, because of stay granted by the Hon’ble Gujarat High Court, there is delay in trial in this matter and therefore, he be released on bail,” observed the court, stating that he was not entitled to bail.