The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Chandigarh, has filed a prosecution complaint against nine accused persons in the Kotak Mahindra Bank fraud case. The agency attached assets worth Rs 131.13 crore in the case. It consists of bank balances of Rs 12.85 crore and immovable properties worth of Rs 118.28 crore.ED initiated investigation on the basis of FIR registered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Panchkula, Haryana. The FIR revealed the embezzlement of funds belonging to the Municipal Corporation (MC), Panchkula, through a criminal conspiracy by unknown bank officials.The ED investigation revealed that Pushpinder Singh, the then deputy vice-president of Kotak Mahindra Bank, in connivance with Vikas Kaushik, an official of Panchkula MC, and Dilip Raghav, employee of Kotak Mahindra Bank, opened two unauthorised bank accounts in the name of Panchkula MC by using a series of fake documents and authorisations purportedly on behalf of Panchkula MC, as required under the internal SOPs of Kotak Mahindra Bank. Thereafter, they transferred the funds of Panchkula MC lying in its genuine accounts with Kotak Mahindra Bank to these unauthorised accounts through fake authorisation letters created in the name of Panchkula MC. It is also learnt that, Satish Kumar of Kotak Mahindra Bank is also being involved in this fraud.It is pertinent to note that the mobile numbers and email IDs linked to these two fake accounts, as well as those of the genuine accounts in the name of Panchkula MC, were updated with mobile numbers and email IDs that were under the effective control of Vikas Kaushik and Pushpinder Singh, in order to circumvent the checks and balances prescribed in the SOPs of Kotak Mahindra Bank for the prevention of unauthorised bank transfers.Once the funds were received in these two unauthorised bank accounts, the funds were further transferred to persons such as Rajat Dahra, Swati Tomar, Kapil Kumar, Vinod Kumar and Sonia, and to entities such as SK Agrotech and SK Agrofirm, for further layering and to disguise the source of the proceeds of crime. The accounts of intermediaries such as Swati Tomar and Rajat Dahra were under the effective control of Pushpinder Singh.The illegally received funds of Panchkula MC were then transferred to Pushpinder’s personal accounts, those of Preeti Thakur (wife of Pushpinder Singh), and for the purchase of immovable properties as well as movable properties such as luxury cars, watches and furniture.Further, these funds were also utilised by Pushpinder Singh for advancing unsecured loans to individuals such as Jattvibeny Garg, Priyanka Garg, Samar Mohan Ranga and Aryan Singh, and to entities such as M/s Sanat Realtors Pvt Ltd, M/s Central Infradevelopers, M/s Sanat Ventures Enterprises LLP, M/s Savage Rechords Pvt Ltd and M/s Sanat Enterprises Pvt Ltd, in return for very high interest payments at 36 per cent per annum in cash.During investigation, it was learnt that, the Pushpinder Singh had purchased many luxury vehicles like Porsche Cayenne, BMW 740LI, BMW X7, BMW 749I, Jeep Wrangler 2021, Jeep Wrangler 2024, BMW Z4, Land Cruiser, Harley Davidson, out of the siphoned off funds of Panchkula MC.It came out that he sold off the vehicles to the third parties after the fraud has been detected. Further, he also deliberately sold the properties of Sector 2, Panchkula after the detection of this fraud, to his own sister Gunita Sethi. This round tripping of funds was done with an intent to disguise the ownership of these properties for the purpose of alienation from attachments under provisions of the PMLA, said ED.