Arvind Dham of Amtek Group in Custody for Money Laundering Case

Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court has granted seven days of custody of Arvind Dham to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case. Dham, a promoter and director of Amtek Group, is accused of siphoning funds and committing bank fraud.

The ED produced Dham before the court after his arrest and sought 14 days of custody to interrogate him. Special CBI judge Bhupinder Singh granted seven days of custody. Dham is to be produced before the court on July 17.

Special Public Prosecutors Simon Benjamin and Manish Jain appeared for the ED, submitting that there are thousands of crores of proceeds of crime generated in this case. They also mentioned documents related to 100 benami properties.

The ED’s counsel stated that Dham and his family members are directors of Amtek Group and that there is evidence of siphoning funds through shell companies, diversion of funds, and investment in properties. The accused has not cooperated in the investigation, withheld relevant information, and willfully evaded submission of information.

Senior advocate Vikram Chaudhari opposed the plea seeking custody of Dham, praying for his release. Earlier, the CBI had registered a case against Amtek Group for bank fraud of around Rs 20,000 crores. On June 20, the ED conducted searches at 35 places in Delhi, NCR, and Maharashtra against Amtek Group.

The alleged fraud led to a huge loss to exchequer money of approximately Rs 10-15 thousand crores. The ED’s investigation revealed that loan funds were siphoned off to invest in real estate, foreign investment, and new ventures. Fictitious sales, capital assets, debtors, and profit were shown in group concerns to get more loans.