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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New Zealand MP performs traditional dance in Parliament, rips up copy of contentious bill
Wellington: New Zealand’s youngest Member of Parliament Hana-Rawhiti Kareariki Maipi-Clarke has once again grabbed the headlines after a video of her staging the traditional Maori dance and ripping up a copy of a contentious bill during a House session went viral on social media.
A viral footage of the vote on the Treaty Principles Bill shows the 22-year-old Te Pati Maori MP interrupting the session by tearing apart a copy of the controversial bill before performing a haka. She is then joined by the people in the public gallery, prompting Speaker Gerry Brownlee to briefly suspend the House.
The ACT New Zealand party, a junior partner in the centre-right coalition government unveiled the Treaty Principles Bill last week. It proposes changes to some principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. The bill has sparked strong opposition from many Maori groups.
The Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840 between the British Crown and more than 500 Maori chiefs, established the framework for governance between the two parties. It remains a foundational document in New Zealand, with its clauses continuing to influence legislation and policy to this day.
The bill is being seen as undermining the rights of the country’s indigenous people by many Maori and their supporters. Notably, Maoris make up around 20% of New Zealand’s 5.3 million population.
As the proposed bill passed its first reading, hundreds of demonstrators embarked on a nine-day march, or hikoi, from New Zealand's north to the national capital of Wellington to voice their opposition.
New Zealand’s youngest MP Hana-Rawhiti Kareariki Maipi-Clarke made it to the headlines once again as she tore apart the copy of the Treaty Principles Bill and performed the traditional group dance Haka in the Parliament. This video is now going viral across the world. #HakaDance… pic.twitter.com/PU5XBA9CQu
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