REI Agro Fraud: ED Restores Rs1,200 Crore in Assets to Victims
Moneylife Digital Team 21 April 2025
In a significant step towards delivering justice to victims of financial fraud, the Delhi zonal office of the directorate of enforcement (ED) has successfully restituted assets worth Rs1,200 crore (at current market rates) in the REI Agro Ltd fraud case. The restitution follows an order on 16 April 2025 by the special court (PMLA) in Delhi and marks a major development in one of India’s largest money laundering investigations.
 
ED carried out the restitution under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), reinforcing the agency’s commitment to tracing, attaching and ultimately returning proceeds of crime (PoC) to those defrauded.
 
The investigation originated from a first information report (FIR) registered by the central bureau of investigation (CBI) on 26 October 2015 against REI Agro and the company directors Sandeep Jhunjhunwala and Sanjay Jhunjhunwala and others. The company had fraudulently secured credit facilities from a consortium of banks, including UCO Bank’s corporate branch in Kolkata. The borrowed funds were then siphoned off for unauthorised purposes, inflicting heavy financial losses on the lenders from 2013 onwards.
 
In response, ED issued six provisional attachment orders (PAOs), cumulatively worth about Rs1,256.56 crore. Additionally, the agency filed one original prosecution complaint and three supplementary complaints related to the case.
 
Meanwhile, REI Agro became subject to a corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) before the national company law tribunal (NCLT). As legal proceedings progressed, the appointed liquidator of REI Agro and Varsanna Ispat Ltd filed an application under Sections 8(7) and 8(8) of the PMLA, requesting the restitution of the attached properties.
 
In accordance with its restitution policy, ED raised no objections to the application, allowing the special court to authorise the return of the properties to the rightful claimants.
 
REI Agro is one of the biggest bank defaulters in India. As of August 2023, REI Agro owed dues worth Rs4,754 crore to banks. (Read: 306 Big Wilful Defaulters, with an Outstanding of Rs100 Crore and above Owe Nearly Rs1.40 Lakh Crore to Banks)
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