ED attaches Rs 45 cr assets of former NSG officer in fraud-linked money laundering case

New Delhi: Assets worth more than Rs 45 crore of a former NSG officer and his family members were attached in a case linked to alleged forgery of tender documents issued for undertaking civil works at the garrison of the ‘black cats’ commando force in Gurugram’s Manesar, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Saturday.

A provisional order for attaching fifty-two movable and immovable properties worth a total Rs 45.20 crore under the anti-money laundering law has been issued against Praveen Yadav and his family members, the agency said in a statement.

Yadav had joined the National Security Guard (NSG) on deputation from the Border Security Force (BSF) and was posted as a team commander (equivalent to deputy commandant rank) at the garrison of the commando force located at Manesar in Gurugram, near Delhi, it said.

The money laundering probe stems from three CBI FIRs filed against the accused in 2020 that alleged that three Surana Group companies, along with their promoters, directors and unidentified individuals, indulged in misappropriation and criminal breach of trust, manipulation of books of accounts through fictitious entities and routing of funds through shell (dummy) companies.

The CBI complaint charged that the accused siphoned off funds from the company’s accounts for their personal gains, causing loss to the tune of Rs 3,986 crore to the public sector banks.

The Surana group is into manufacturing and sale of gold jewellery.

The ED alleged that the accused “created a web of shell companies and the dummy directors of these shell companies were either the relatives/persons from ancestral village of Surana family or the employees of Surana group of companies”.

“The transactions of the three main group companies were routed through those dummy/shell companies and thereafter the monies were siphoned off to other purposes including purchasing properties through layering and also obtained benami properties in the name of those shell companies,” the agency alleged.

Surana group of companies/promoters incorporated several companies in Cayman Islands as well as British Virgin Islands in the name of “dummy” directors and siphoned off money to park in those companies through four “dummy” companies located in Singapore, it said.

The ED arrested four people in this case including two promoters of Surana group and two alleged shell company directors.

They were Dinesh Chand Surana and Vijay Raj Surana, both managing directors-cum-promoters of Surana Industries Limited, Surana Power Ltd and Surana Corporation Ltd and P Anand and I Prabhakaran, alleged dummy directors of shell companies, the agency said.