ED arrests Associate High Pressure Technologies chairman for defrauding bank of ₹149.89 crore

The chairman of Associate High Pressure Technologies Pvt Limited has been arrested for allegedly defrauding a bank of ₹149.89 crore.

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested the chairman of Associate High Pressure Technologies Pvt Limited (AHPTPL) from his residence in Pune on November 10 for allegedly defrauding and causing a wrongful loss of ₹149.89 crore to the bank.

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The arrested accused identified as Manoharlal Satramdas Agicha was absconding for several months and was continuously changing his location and mobile numbers and did not appear before the agency despite numerous summonses hindering the investigation.

The agency had earlier conducted searches at nine locations in Mumbai, Ahmadabad, Kandla and Pune and arrested Ramchand Kotumal Issrani who is managing director of AHPTPL, in August, this year in the same case. Issrani is in judicial custody. While Agicha was produced before a special PMLA court on Saturday and remanded in ED custody for three days for further investigation.

ED had initiated an investigation on the basis of FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act against Associate High-Pressure Technologies and its directors and shareholders.

ED investigation revealed that loan amount was illegally diverted by way of fictitious Inland Letters of Credit, bogus unsecured loans and commissions to related entities along with other methods. Meanwhile, the agency gathered information to trace Agicha who was changing his phones and sim cards frequently. It was learnt that he was hiding in his residential premises in Pune. He was arrested under section 19 of PMLA, 2002, said officials.