The probe revealed collusion of an official of a bank with people associated with the insolvency process by agreeing to sale of land at much undervalued prices
NEW DELHI: Misuse of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) process and alleged rigging of bids before National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) have come under the scanner of central agencies. ED recently arrested Amit Katyal, a close aide of former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in one such case, and conducted searches on a lawyer associated with NCLT in another case related to sale of undervalued land through “misuse of IBC”. ED had carried out searches on Nov 20 at six places in Delhi and Gurgaon on middlemen who were part of the insolvency process – resolution professionals, NCLT advocate and buyer of the undervalued property in question, RDB Infrastructure & Power Ltd. The agency claimed it had seized crucial evidence of bid rigging and unexplained cash of Rs 50 lakh.”Digital data recovered from their mobile phones contained draft invoices reflecting proposed illicit and unaccounted consideration, indicating arrangements for illegal gains outside the IBC/NCLT framework and without such approval process of creditors or homebuyers,” ED said. The case was related to Universal BuildWell and its promoters for non-completion of real estate projects and for cheating homebuyers.The agency further said “evidence collected during the search revealed manipulation of the bidding process through predetermined and artificially suppressed bids, including one bid submitted by the middleman advocate himself, indicating clear collusion and bid rigging”.The probe revealed collusion of an official of a private bank – a secured creditor which had agreed to a huge haircut for its losses despite significant appreciation in land value – with people associated with the insolvency process by agreeing to sale of land at much undervalued prices. Homebuyers were kept uninformed even by the resolution professional.Lalu’s aide Amit Katyal, by now one of the most regular visitors to ED headquarters because of the multiple cases he is facing, was arrested on Nov 17 in a case of real estate fraud involving Angle Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, where he is accused of non-delivery of flats in a project named Krrish Florence Estate in Sector 70 of Gurgaon on 14 acres of land.”Investigation revealed fraudulent bookings by Katyal to third parties in a project meant for central government employees, and diversion of funds. He alienated a part of the licensed land of 2 acres valuing Rs 130 crore at undervalued rates to a third party during the insolvency proceedings in a clear abuse of the process of law under IBC,” ED said.He is also accused of laundering funds received as loans from several other banks and has FIRs registered against him by the Gurugram police. Katyal was arrested earlier in the Railways jobs for land scam in 2023.
