Delhi Police arrest former IL&FS chairman Ramchand Karunakaran

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The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police has said it has arrested the former managing director of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS) Ramchand Karunakaran in connection with the alleged cheating and siphoning of money.

Karunakaran, who was on bail in connection with an earlier case of alleged misappropriation of money in 2019, was arrested from Mumbai for an alleged siphoning of around Rs 100 crore.

"We had received a complaint from the director of Enso Infrastructures, Ashish Begwani, in 2018. He alleged that he was approached by Karunakaran, Ravi Parthasarthy and Hari Shankaran -- all former directors of IL&FS -- with an investment proposal in 2010. Begwani's company poured in Rs 170 crore for a 15 per cent share in IL&FS Rail Ltd. This was for the Gurgaon rapid metro project," R.K Singh, Additional Commissioner of Police (Economic Offences Wing), said.

According to the police, the complainant further added that his funds were being misused since no work was started by the company. They had also bagged "bogus contract orders" worth Rs 21 crore from another company called Silverpoint Infratech Ltd. These contract orders were forged by the accused. The police added that Begwani has also alleged that the directors showed inflated expenses and lower profits in their books to siphon off money.

Police said several cases have been registered against Karunakaran and other directors of the IL&FS Rail Ltd for misappropriating funds, cheating other companies and forgery. Police said during the investigation it found that the accused had made payments to several companies without actually doing any work to get contract orders.

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"The accused didn't have the names, addresses or account details of any of these contractors. The money was being transferred through shell companies," the police added. "We are checking his involvement in other cases as well. He was arrested in 2019 and 2020 by different agencies but got out on bail. The matter is in the court. We have now arrested him in a cheating case that was lodged by Begwani," Singh added.

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