Enforcement Directorate arrests Ahmedabad-based firm CMD with Interpol's help for bank fraud

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate said on Saturday it has arrested the CMD of an Ahmedabad-based company in connection with a money laundering case linked to alleged multi-crore bank fraud.

Sunil Surendrakumar Kakkad, the chief managing director of Sai Infosystem (I) Ltd, was arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after he was intercepted by the international police agency Interpol in Liberia, it said.

The Enforcement Directorate said Kakkad, through his companies - Sai Infosystem (I) Ltd, Atrium Infocomm Pvt Ltd and Click Telecom Pvt Ltd based in Ahmedabad - generated "proceeds of crime" to the tune of Rs 867.43 crore which was also laundered by him.

The agency filed a criminal case of money laundering against him last year after going through a 2015 FIR of the CBI in connection with an alleged bank loan fraud case. The probe revealed, the ED said, in 1992 Kakkad set up a partnership firm and later made the three firms "public limited companies" and "fraudulently" took a loan from banks.

It alleged Kakkad had "no intention" to pay back. The agency said that he fled to Liberia via Dubai but was brought back to India with the help of Interpol. Kakkad had already moved his family to Chicago in the USA, it said.

The ED charged that though repeated summonses were issued to him, he was not joining the investigation. It said Kakkad has established multiple shell companies to indulge in "questionable" transactions, in addition to preparing forged financial documents of his various group entities.