ED attaches Rotomac properties worth Rs 177 cr
New Delhi, May 29 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said it has attached Vikram Kothari owned Kanpur-based Rotomac Global's properties worth Rs 177 crore in connection with a money laundering case involving an alleged bank fraud amounting to Rs 3,695 crore.
The attached properties of the company and those of its directors are located in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur, Gujarat's Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, Uttarakhand's Dehradun and Maharashtra's Mumbai, an official of the financial probe agency said.
The ED's action comes under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, on the basis of a Central Bureau of Investigation's First Information Report.
The probe had revealed that the accused persons in the guise of merchants, without having any genuine business transactions, defaulted in meeting its payments obligation to the bank by diverting and siphoning off the funds.
"The investigations have revealed that Rotomac Global Pvt. Ltd. has indulged in merchanting trade with limited number of buyers and seller, wherein it used to receive back the discounted LC (letters of credit) amount from the overseas beneficiary after deduction of 1.5 to two per cent commission by them either directly into the accounts of Rotomac group companies or into the accounts of overseas companies controlled by Vikram Kothari," the agency said in a statement.
"Their discounted LC amount thereafter have been used by Rotomac Global Pvt. Ltd. for other business activities such as FDR, iron ore purchase and investment in real estate," it said.
The ED and the CBI had filed a case in February after the Bank of Baroda filed a complaint against Kothari, his wife Sadhana, his son Rahul and some unidentified bank officials and private persons.
Kothari is the Chairman and Managing Director of the Rotomac group while his wife and son are directors.
According to the CBI FIR, Kothari had obtained Rs 2,919 crore from various banks, including from the Bank of India (Rs 754.77 crore), Bank of Baroda (Rs 456.63 crore), Indian Overseas Bank (Rs 771.07 crore), Union Bank of India (Rs 458.95 crore), Allahabad Bank (Rs 330.68 crore), Bank of Maharashtra (Rs 49.82 crore), and Oriental Bank of Commerce (Rs 97.47 crore).
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Cong takes swipe at PM over India not being part of US-led 'Pax Silica' grouping
New Delh (PTI) The Congress on Saturday said it is perhaps not very surprising that India is not part of a US-led strategic initiative to build a secure silicon supply chain, given the "sharp downturn" in the Trump-Modi ties, and asserted that it would have been to "our advantage if we had been part of this group".
Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the news of India not being part of the group comes after the PM had enthusiastically posted on social media about a telephone call with his "once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC".
In a lengthy post on X, Ramesh said, "According to some news reports, the US has excluded India from a nine-nation initiative it has launched to reduce Chinese control on high-tech supply chains. The agreement is called Pax Silica, clearly as a counter to Pax Sinica. The nations included (for the moment at least) are the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia."
"Given the sharp downturn in the Trump-Modi ties since May 10th, 2025, it is perhaps not very surprising that India has not been included. Undoubtedly, it would have been to our advantage if we had been part of this group."
"This news comes a day after the PM had enthusiastically posted on his telephone call with his once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC," the Congress leader asserted.
The new US-led strategic initiative, rooted in deep cooperation with trusted allies, has been launched to build a secure and innovation-driven silicon supply chain.
According to the US State Department, the initiative called 'Pax Silica' aims to reduce coercive dependencies, protect the materials and capabilities foundational to artificial intelligence (AI), and ensure aligned nations can develop and deploy transformative technologies at scale.
The initiative includes Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia. With the exception of India, all other QUAD countries -- Japan, Australia and the US -- are part of the new initiative.
New Delhi will host the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 on February 19-20, focusing on the principles of 'People, Planet, and Progress'. The summit, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the France AI Action Summit, will be the first-ever global AI summit hosted in the Global South.
Prime Minister Modi and US President Trump on Thursday discussed ways to sustain momentum in the bilateral economic partnership in a phone conversation amid signs of the two sides inching closer to firming up a much-awaited trade deal.
The phone call between the two leaders came on a day Indian and American negotiators concluded two-day talks on the proposed bilateral trade agreement that is expected to provide relief to India from the Trump administration's whopping 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods.
In a social media post, Modi had described the conversation as "warm and engaging".
"We reviewed the progress in our bilateral relations and discussed regional and international developments. India and the US will continue to work together for global peace, stability and prosperity," Modi had said without making any reference to trade ties.
