KUMAR PAPPU SINGH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners in W.P.Nos.11490, 11492 and14336 of 2020 are Private Limited Companies. The petitioner in W.P.No.11572 of 2020 is a partnership firm. The petitioners in W.P.No.9338 of 2020 and W.P.No.9362 of 2020 are individuals. All these petitioners are challenging the order or provisional attachment bearing No.2/2019 in File No.ECIR/VKSZ0/02/2018 dated 31.12.2019, passed by the 2nd respondent in all these cases.

(2.) The case of the petitioners is that M/s IDBI Bank had filed a complaint before the Central Bureau of Investigation, which was registered as FIR.No.RC03(A)/2018, dated 27.03.2018, against various persons including Sri Kumar Pappu Singh, the writ petitioner in W.P.No.9338 of 2020, who was arrayed as Accused No.3 in the said complaint. The complaint of the bank was that between the years 2009 and 2012 the bank had sanctioned Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Loans to 101 borrowers to the tune of Rs.74.99 crores without obtaining proper loan documents and without conducting pre-sanction and post-sanction inspections and without ensuring the end use of the loan. It is further stated in the complaint that these loan amounts were disbursed to the savings accounts of the beneficiaries, from where the money was transferred to the accounts of the aggregators and later misappropriated. The petitioner in W.P.No.9338 of 2020 was named as accused No.3 on the ground that he stood as guarantor for 87 KCC loans and diverted the sanctioned amounts to his savings account and bank account of his firms/companies. These diverted amounts are said to have been used, by the petitioner in W.P.No.9338 of 2020, to fund his Pisciculture business which ran into losses.

(3.) As the said complaint included scheduled offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (herein after referred as "The Act "), the authorities under the Act had also registered a case bearing No.ECIR/VKSZO/02/2018 on 28.05.2018.In the course of the investigation of the said case, the 2nd respondent, by way of provisional attachment order No.2 of 2019 dated 31.12.2019, had held that a sum of Rs.69.46 crores had been diverted by the petitioner in W.P.No.9338 of 2020 and exercising his power under Section 5 of the Act the, 2nd respondent provisionally attached various properties belonging to the petitioners herein. These properties were enumerated in two tables. Table-I consists of properties acquired by the petitioners prior to September, 2010 and Table-II sets out the properties said to have been acquired by the petitioners after September, 2010 by using the proceeds of the crime.