Hyderabad: The Sujana Group of Companies, headed by its chairman, former Union minister Y. Satyanarayana Chowdary, has allegedly defrauded banks to the tune of Rs 5,700 crore, the Enforcement Directorate has found.

The money was found to have been pumped into 120 shell companies that had ghost address and no business activities. Mr Chowdary is a confidant of AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.

An eight-member ED-Chennai team that raided the residence and office of Mr Chowdary seized six luxury cars including a Ferrari, a Range Rover and a Mercedes Benz and crucial business documents.

The alleged fraud was detected when the Central Bureau of Investigation’s banking security and fraud cell at Bengaluru registered three FIRs based on complaints from three banks stating that the total loss caused to the consortium of banks was Rs 364 crore by M/s Best & Crompton Engineering Projects Ltd, Chennai (BCEPL).

The company had obtained loans from these banks by falsification of accounts and submission of false statements. The sum included Rs 133 crore of the Central Bank of India, Rs 71 crore of Andhra Bank and Rs 159 crore of Corporation Bank.

Based on these FIRs, investigations under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) were initiated by ED-Chennai. As part of these investigations, the ED on October 8 had conducted searches on Mr Chowdary’s residence and the offices of key officials of BCEPL at Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

During the searches, certain incriminating documents were seized for further investigation. Searches resulted in the recovery and seizure of 126 rubber stamps of shell companies from the business premises at Plot No.18, Nagarjuna Hills, Punjagutta. It was identified that the same premises accommodated many companies of the Sujana Group.

An ED official told this newspaper: “Verification conducted with the seized documents indicated that BCEPL along with other companies of the Sujana Group were functioning under the chairmanship of Y.S. Chowdary alias Y. Satyanrayana Chowdary alias Sujana Chowdary. Investigations revealed that all directors of the Sujana group companies act under the instructions of Y.S. Chowdary, which is evidenced by the email correspondences and communications recovered from the business and residential premises of directors of BCEPL.”

“Further, in their voluntary statements tendered under Section 50 of PMLA, directors of BCEPL had inter alia stated that Mr Chowdary was the person responsible for the activities of the Sujana group and that they had affixed their signatures on the insistence of Mr Chowdary, either directly or through the chief financial officer and company secretary of the group,” the official said.