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ED carries out searches in 19 locations in Hilal Rather-J&K Bank fraud case

New Delhi | 6-Aug-2020

The Enforcement Directorate carried out nationwide searches in the J&K bank fraud case. Sleuths from the ED, on Friday, raided nineteen locations in Delhi, Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir. The case involves alleged loan fraud involving Hilal Ahmed Rather son of senior National Conference leader and former finance minister of J&K Abdul Rahim Rather.
A case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act has been filed by the ED. The federal probe agency had taken cognisance of the FIR and charge sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The ED has said the raids will help them in identifying assets acquired by Hilal Rather and others which are now "proceeds of crime". List of assets in India and abroad have been identified and the ED will soon order provisional attachments of these assets.
In March, the CBI had filed a charge sheet in a special court against three persons Hilal and two officials of bank Arun Kapoor and Iqbal Singh. Both of them were branch head of J&K Bank, new university campus branch Jammu.
The charge sheet said bank officials colluded with Hilal and caused a huge loss to J&K bank. CBI had formed a special team to probe the case. On 4th March, the CBI took over the probe on the request of J&K union territory. The case was earlier being probed by the anti-corruption branch
Investigations have revealed that Hilal Rather and his partnership firm Paradise Avenue had entered into a criminal conspiracy with officials of the bank to get a Rs 177.68 crores loan sanctioned in violation of rules and guidelines.
"The loans that were sanctioned for construction of flats were allegedly diverted and misappropriated by the accused using the bank accounts of his employees," the CBI had said. Further probe revealed that Hilal Rather submitted forged certificates and bills to the bank.
"Bank officials did not verify the certificates and helped the accused in siphoning off the loan amount and laundering of money. The officials allegedly overlooked the rules and guidelines of the J&K Bank," the CBI had alleged.