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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Probe launched after viral video shows 3 students cleaning toilets in Pudukkottai government school
Pudukkottai: Education authorities in Tamil Nadu’s Pudukkottai district have launched an inquiry after a video went viral showing three students of a government primary school allegedly cleaning the institution’s toilets.
The incident reportedly took place at the Panchayat Union Primary School in Namanasamuthiram Kudiyiruppu. The video, cited by The New Indian Express on Monday, shows two boys in school uniforms filling buckets and scrubbing toilets, while a third is seen sweeping inside the toilet.
The school, which has around 30 students from Classes 1 to 5, is reportedly staffed by only two teachers.
District education officials mentioned that they had begun looking into the issue on Saturday, following directions from District Collector M Aruna, even before the video went viral. While many social media users alleged that students were forced to do the cleaning by school staff, officials quoted by the news outlet said such claims could only be verified after a thorough field visit.
“The video could also be an old one. We were unable to visit the school immediately. However, a team of officers will be sent to the school on Monday for investigation,” TNIE quoted an education official as saying.
So far, authorities have not confirmed the date when the video was recorded or whether such practices have occurred earlier at the school.
