Bank fraud: Delhi HC refuses bail to Amtek Group ex-chairperson

New Delhi, Aug 19 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Tuesday denied bail to former Amtek Group chairperson Arvind Dham in a Rs 2,700-crore bank fraud case.

Justice Ravinder Dudeja dismissed Dham's regular bail application, finding no sufficient ground to grant the relief.

The Supreme Court in April denied interim bail to Dham in the matter.

Earlier, ED provisionally attached fresh assets worth over Rs 550 crore of Amtek Group firms, an insolvent automotive equipment manufacturing company, under the anti-money-laundering law.

Action was taken against Amtek Auto Limited, ARG Limited, ACIL limited, Metalyst Forging Limited, Castex Technologies Limited and Amtek Group promoter Arvind Dham, apart from some others, the ED said.

Properties worth Rs 5,115.31 crore were attached by the agency in the case in September last.

The ED probe began under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on the directions of the Supreme Court on February 27, 2024.

Dham was arrested the agency in July last year and chargesheeted in September later that year.

"There were FIRs registered by the CBI arising from the complaints by IDBI Bank and Bank of Maharashtra under various sections of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act on allegations of illegally diverting bank loans by causing wrongful loss to the banks," the ED said.

The probe found the above-mentioned companies, along with other group concerns, were taken to insolvency, whose resolution led to a haircut of more than 80 per cent for the banks, causing "substantial" losses to these public sector financial institutions.

The financial statements of group companies were "deceitfully manipulated" to obtain additional fraudulent loans and create bogus assets and investments in books of accounts, the agency alleged.

The provisionally-attached assets include 145 acre of land in Rajasthan and Punjab, some properties in Delhi-NCR valued in total at Rs 342 crore, apart from fixed deposits and bank balances worth Rs 112.5 crore.

All the Amtek assets are identified as "direct proceeds of crime" and held through several companies beneficially owned by Dham and assets of Amtek companies held by bankers who sanctioned the loans, according to the ED. PTI UK UK AMK AMK