Enforcement Directorate seizes assets of 2 firms

The ED provisionally attached properties worth Rs 4.79 crore of AP-based Deccan Chromates which was releasing hazardous wastes. The ED also attached properties worth Rs 10.46 crore of Gem Cables and Conductors, a Hydera-bad-based company, for money laundering.

In the first case investigaters found that Deccan Chromates had produced hazardous waste and it was not sent to the Treatment Storage Disposal Facility for treatment and had saved Rs 5 crore. The hazardous waste was allowed to flow into fresh water bodies and caused enormous damage to the environment. Under PMLA the proceeds of crime were tracked to immovable properties. Properties worth Rs 4.79 crore held by Cherukuri Kutumba Rao, the MD of Deccan Chromates Limited and others were attached.

The Pollution Control Board had filed a complaint before the Miryalaguda magistrate court alleging that Deccan Chromates had stored 40,000 tonnes of hazardous waste on its premises.

“This should have been sent to the Treatment Storage Disposal Facility. The company broke rules by not complying with the directions of PCB under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and released the poisonous waste into nearby fresh water bodies causing enormous damage to public health and the environment,” an ED official said.

In the second case the ED said the CBI had already charge sheeted Gem Cables and Conductors for allegedly availing credit facilities from the Global Trust Bank through fraud. ED joint director K.S.V.V. Prasad who probed the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act found that Gem Cables and Conductors and its associate company Gem Telecom caused loss to the Global Trust Bank and the proceeds were converted into movable and immovable properties. Three immovable properties including land at Chitkul in Patancheru in Medak, the factory at Chitkul, plant of the company and movable properties of Supermac Engineering were identified and attached.