Lucknow: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached 12 immovable properties worth Rs 30.86 crore belonging to former MLA Vinay Shankar Tiwari, his wife Reeta Tiwari and Ajit Kumar Pandey under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
Tiwari is the son of former minister and strongman from Gorakhpur, late Hari Shankar Tiwari. He represented his father’s assembly constituency of Chillupar in Gorakhpur after he was elected on a BSP ticket. He later joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) and lost the 2022 assembly polls.
The immovable properties attached are in the form of commercial space, residential house and agricultural lands which are spread across many cities such as Lucknow, Noida and Gorakhpur. The properties attached are registered in the name of Gangotri Enterprises, Royal Empire Marketing Pvt Ltd, Kandarp construction and Reeta Tiwari who are the main accused in the case.
The ED initiated investigation based on an FIR registered by CBI, AC-V, New Delhi against M/s Gangotri Enterprises Ltd. and its promoters/directors/guarantors.
ED investigation revealed that M/s. Gangotri Enterprises Ltd in collusion with its promoters/directors/guarantors fraudulently availed credit facilities to the tune of Rs 1129.44 crore from consortium of seven banks led by Bank of India.
It was further revealed that the said credit facilities were not repaid and grossly diverted, misappropriated and siphoned off by M/s. Gangotri Enterprises Ltd. and its promoters/directors/guarantors in violation of banking norms causing wrongful loss to the tune of Rs 754.24 crore to the consortium of banks.
Earlier, in this case, ED had conducted searches at 10 premises on Feb 23, 2024 where incriminating documents related to various properties bought out of siphoned off funds were found and seized. A provisional attachment order dated November 17, 2023 was also issued attaching multiple immovable properties worth Rs 72.08 crore in this case.
Total consolidated value of attached properties in this case till now stands at Rs 102.94 crore.
