Hyderabad, Dec 24 (IANS): The Enforcement Directorate’s Hyderabad unit has provisionally attached immovable properties worth Rs.48.71 crore in a bank fraud case being investigated against Transstroy India Ltd. (TIL) and others.

The central agency said on Tuesday that it provisionally attached immovable properties in the form of land parcels and residential premises under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

In August last year, the ED had conducted searches at the premises of TIL, a company owned by former MP and senior Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, in connection with a money laundering involving loan fraud of Rs.7,926 crore.

In what is said to be one of the biggest loan scams in the country, the company had obtained loans from Canara Bank and 13 other banks.

The ED had conducted searches at the offices and residences of Rayapati and other promoters at nine locations including Hyderabad and Guntur. It had registered the case under the PMLA based on the First Information Report (FIR) filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The accused had allegedly diverted borrowed funds to group companies, shell companies and other entities.

In 2020, the CBI Bengaluru filed an FIR against TIL, company CMD Cherukuri Sridhar, former MP Sambasiva Rao, Akkineni Satish and others for criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, falsification of documents and violation of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The loans were obtained from a consortium of banks, including Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Corporation Bank, Andhra Bank, Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, United Bank of India, UCO Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, South India Bank, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank in 2013 and 2014.

The loan accounts had turned into NPA due to alleged irregularities by the company, frequent devolvement of Letters of Credit, non-payment of interest on working capital limits and non-routing of operations through consortium banks.