ED files chargesheet in Kotak Mahindra Bank, Panchkula MC PMLA case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has said that a former deputy vice president of the Kotak Mahindra Bank, two other staffers of the private lender, and an employee of the Panchkula (Haryana) municipal corporation defrauded the state of over Rs 100 crore.

The four allegedly perpetrated a fraud to "embezzle" the funds belonging to the state government department, the ED said.

The federal agency made the claim in a chargesheet filed on July 30 against nine accused before a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court.


The money laundering case stems from an FIR filed by the Haryana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on charges of embezzlement of funds belonging to the Panchkula municipal corporation through a "deep-rooted and well-organised" criminal conspiracy.

The ED, in a statement, said that Kotak Mahindra Bank's former deputy vice president, Pushpinder Singh, in connivance with Vikas Kaushik, an official of Municipal Corporation (MC) Panchkula, and another Kotak Mahindra employee, Dilip Raghav, opened two "unauthorised" bank accounts in the civic body's name using a series of "fake" documents and authorisations.

"All genuine communications, authorisation letters and instructions sent by municipal corporation Panchkula were disregarded, and a series of parallel authorisation letters were created by Singh and Kaushik, with the support of others, for the purpose of opening these two illegal accounts," the ED said.

Thereafter, the ED said, they transferred the corporation's funds from its genuine accounts with Kotak Mahindra Bank to these unauthorised accounts using "fake" authorisation letters created in the name of MC Panchkula.

"It is also learnt that Satish Kumar of Kotak Mahindra Bank was also involved in this fraud," it said.

Mobile numbers and email IDs linked to the two fake bank accounts, as well as those of the genuine accounts in the corporation's name, were updated with mobile numbers and email IDs that were "under the effective control of" Kaushik and Singh, the agency alleged.

This, it said, was done in order to circumvent the checks and balances prescribed in Kotak Mahindra Bank's Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the prevention of unauthorised bank transfers.

This way, the entire system of checks and balances was completely compromised by the "collusive" actions of Singh and Kaushik, with the support of others, the ED alleged.

The agency claimed these funds were transferred to persons and entities linked to the two, including to Singh's wife Preeti Thakur. Some of the funds were used to purchase luxury cars, watches, and furniture.

Singh is also alleged to have "advanced" these funds to give unsecured loans to individuals and some entities at the rate of 36 per cent per annum in cash.

The ED pegged the total defrauded sum at Rs 107.24 crore.

The agency said it has also attached assets worth Rs 131 crore in this case.