By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: The Enforcement Directorate has carried out a search operation under PMLA, 2002 on 13.07.2022 at 3 places in West Bengal, in the case of “Rashmi Group of Companies” resulting in debit freeze of bank accounts having balance of Rs. 64.97 Crore and Cash of Rs. 1.01 Crore. Rashmi Group runs Rashmi Metaliks Ltd , Rashmi Cement Ltd , Reach Dredging Ltd and Reach Infocom Pvt Ltd.
Rashmi Group is engaged in manufacturing of integrated Iron & Steel Products, Cement, Power and Ferro Alloys. Led by Mr. Sajjan Kumar Patwari and his three sons Mr. Sunil Kumar Patwari, Mr. Sanjib Kumar Patwari and Mr. Sanjay Kumar Patwari, the group has its corporate office at Kolkata, and factories located at Kharagpur and Jhargram respectively.
The ED is probing the company and its promoters in a case related to the loss of ₹ 73.40 crore to the public exchequer by “deliberate mis-declaring the facts and misusing the dual freight policy of the Indian Railways to avail wrongful benefits of a lower tariff of freight for transportation of iron ore”, the agency said in a statement.
The searches were carried out on July 13 at 3 places in West Bengal, it said.The money laundering case stems from the Central Bureau of investigation’s (CBI) First Information Report (FIR) against the Rashmi group of companies. These include Rashmi Cement Ltd and Rashmi Metalik Ltd. “As a result of the search operation, ₹ 64.97 crore lying in the bank account of the companies has been frozen,” the ED said.
Meanwhile, in another case, ED has seized cash amounting to Rs 11.88 Crore generated from illegal mining in Jharkhand lying in various bank accounts. With the present seizure, total cash and bank balance of Rs 36.58 Crore illegally generated from mining etc in Jharkhand has been seized
