New Delhi: Twice arrested and out on bail, accused Ramchand Karunakaran, MD of IL&FS Transportation Network, has been arrested for a third time.
Cops of the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police confirmed to this reporter that the arrest happened in Mumbai last night.
Several cases have been registered against Karunakaran and other directors of the IL&FS Rail Ltd for misappropriating funds, cheating other companies and forgery.
RK Singh, Additional Commissioner of Police (Economic Offences Wing), said the arrest followed complaints from Ashish Begwani, director of Enso Infrastructures, way back in 2018. In a statement to the police, Begwani alleged that he was approached by Karunakaran, Ravi Parthasarthy and Hari Shankaran — all former directors of IL&FS — with an investment proposal in 2010. Begwani’s company poured in Rs 170 crores for a 15 percent share in IL&FS Rail Ltd for the Gurgaon rapid metro project.
The case, which involves cheating, forgery and criminal misappropriation of Rs 100 cr approx. registered against the directors of IL&FS Rail.
Karunakaran was earlier arrested in 2019 and 2020 but had got out on bail. The previous arrests were initiated by the Enforcement Directorate during its money laundering probe in the IL&FS which is now mired in financial irregularities.
Begwani said he realised that his funds were being misused since no work was started by the company. They had also bagged “bogus contract orders” worth Rs 21 crore from another company called Silverpoint Infratech Ltd. These contract orders were forged by the accused.
Begwani has also alleged that the directors showed inflated expenses and lower profits in their books to siphon off money.
During their probe, the cops found that the accused had made payments to several companies without actually doing any work to get contract orders. The accused didn’t have the names, addresses or account details of any of these contractors. The money was being transferred through shell companies.
Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate had also arrested Arun K Saha, the former joint MD of the transportation network. Saha was arrested along with Karunakaran, those were the first arrests in this case by the ED.
The debt crisis at the infrastructure lender came to light following a series of defaults by its group companies beginning September, 2018. IL&FS has defaulted on payment of loans to SIDBI and along with its subsidiaries has a combined debt of over ₹91,000 crore.
IL&FS big boss Ravi Parthsarathy is lodged in a Chennai jail for his alleged involvement in the fraud, described as India’s biggest economic scandal.
The government is on record saying IL&FS, under Parthasarathy, ran up a scam worth Rs 100,000 crore, the amount close to the government’s vaccine bill.
Parthasarathy was arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EoW) of Chennai Police a few months ago.
Parthasarathy awaits trial on charges that a IL&FS subsidiary cheated the Mumbai-based 63 Moons Technologies to the tune of Rs 200 crore. 63 Moons had alleged IL&FS Transportation Networks India Ltd (ITNL) failed to repay its dues despite promising investors to return the money (Rs 200 crore). It then filed a complaint with the police in 2020.
Parthasarathy was in charge when the fraud took place. IL&FS eventually collapsed in August 2018, and didn’t repay its loans to several Indian banks and insurance companies. IL&FS was sent to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for debt resolution and the government appointed a board to steer the group out of financial trouble.
The 63 Moons Technologies case is just the tip of the iceberg. The dubious reputation of IL&FS was superbly hidden behind a huge smokescreen.
For the masses, IL&FS looked like a government-owned company. Only those who cared to cross the smokescreen knew why IL&FS was called Mumbai’s biggest hub of corruption. The late columnist and editor, Anil Dharkar, called IL&FS as “Internal Looting and Fraud Syndicate”.
Now, slowly, yet steadily, worms of corruption are emerging from the cupboards of IL&FS, exposing how Parthasarathy and his men used his tremendous influence in the bureaucracy to avoid any probe by any government agencies.
