Rotomac scam: Tax department attaches 11 bank accounts

NEW DELHI: The Income Tax Department has attached 11 bank accounts in connection with the tax evasion probe against Rotomac pens group, officials said.

The accounts in various bank branches in Uttar Pradesh were attached on Monday night. The provisional attachment action has been carried out to "recover outstanding tax demands", the tax officials said. Three bank accounts of the group were attached in January last year by the department, they added.

Rotomac promoter Vikram Kothari is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) for an alleged fraud of Rs 3,700 crore.


The CBI registered an FIR against Kothari on Monday on the basis of a complaint filed by Bank of Baroda (BoB) which led a consortium of seven banks that had given loans to the Kanpur-based businessman's Rotomac Global Pvt Ltd. The loan amount kept swelling thereafter. The ED and Income Tax department, too, have joined the probe. Kothari's properties in New Delhi and Kanpur have been searched by the CBI in the last couple of days.

The banks involved in the Rotomac case, in which the CBI as well as the ED have registered separate cases, with the defaulted loan amount in brackets were Bank of Baroda (Rs 456.53 crore), Bank of India (Rs 754.77 crore), Bank of Maharashtra (Rs 49.82 crore), Allahabad Bank (Rs 330.68 crore), Oriental Bank of Commerce (Rs 97.47 crore), Indian Overseas Bank (Rs 771.07 crore) and Union Bank of India (Rs 458.95 crore), the CBI said.

This is the second major financial scam to break out after the sensational Rs 11,400 crore fraud allegedly committed by billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, who is a promoter of Gitanjali group of companies.