NSEL scam accused nabbed from Haryana

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Sunday arrested another accused for his alleged role in money laundering in the ₹5,574-crore National Spot Exchange Limited

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Sunday arrested another accused for his alleged role in money laundering in the ₹5,574-crore National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL) scam case.

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The accused, Rajiv Agrawal, who was a wanted in the case since 2017 after he had jumped bail, was arrested from Karnal in Haryana and brought to the city on Sunday.

A local court remanded him in judicial custody till October 21.

Agrawal is one of the directors of the companies linked to one of the major defaulters of the scam, PD Agroprocessors Pvt Ltd. He is accused of diverting money obtained through NSEL into the account of PD Agroprocessors for their real estate project.

According to the ED, Agrawal was granted bail on July 18, 2016, on the condition that he would have to attend court and the ED office at regular intervals to cooperate in the investigation. However, after he failed to do so, in March 2017, the agency issued a warrant against him.

As Agrawal remained absconding, four months later, a proclamation was also issued against him. After the ED received information about Agrawal being at Haryana, the ED traced him from Karnal on Sunday.

The agency claimed that he had diverted ₹31 crore from the account of PD Agroprocessors to buy land from farmers for the development of a real estate project ‘Prime City’.

According to the complaint filed by ED in 2016, PD Agroprocessors Pvt Ltd is accused of siphoning off money to the tune of ₹420.40 crore. It diverted ₹201.28 crore to the personal accounts of its directors and the companies under it. The company also diverted ₹37.51 crore towards investment in the real estate sector.

The ED complaint stated that M/S Dunar Foods Ltd, one of the firms linked to PD Agropocessors, received ₹282.93 crore, of which ₹1,18.65 crore were used to repay loans.

The NSEL case, which came to light in 2013, involves settlement crisis and payment default of ₹5,574 crore that led to losses for 13,000 investors. It pertains to the hatching of a criminal conspiracy to defraud investors, inducing them to trade on the platform of NSEL, creating forged documents like bogus warehouse receipts, falsified accounts and thus committing a criminal breach of trust.