New Delhi, Sep 12 (IANS): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached properties worth Rs 288.91 crore of Indian Technomac Company Ltd and its promoters in a case relating to bank fraud, the agency said on Wednesday.

The attached assets include land, building, plant and machinery of the company located at Paonta Sahib in Himachal Pradesh.

Agricultural land owned by the firm's promoter Rakesh Kumar Sharma located at Mehrauli village here and another agricultural land, in the name of Director Vinay Kumar Sharma, located in Himachal Pradesh were also attached by the ED.

The agency attached the properties under Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The ED initiated investigation on the basis of FIRs registered by Himachal Pradesh Police.

The investigation revealed that Indian Technomac Company Ltd was sanctioned facilities comprising term loan of Rs 289.66 crore and working capital limits of Rs 1,335 crores by a consortium of banks led by the Bank of India.

"The account gradually started slipping into Non Profitable Assets with member banks of the consortium due to non-servicing of interest, instalment, development of bills under Letter of Credits (LCs). The account was later on classified as NPA in books of accounts of the banks," said an ED statement.

The investigation further revealed that the promoters - with the help of his associates, employees, and internal statutory auditors - fraudulently showed a huge rise in company growth by inflating the balance sheets in order to induce banks to sanction more loan facilities, it said.

"The balance sheets were inflated by forging sale and purchase bills. There was no real increase in the actual turnover of the company. The loan amount so obtained was diverted to various shell companies. The funds in shell companies were further siphoned off for personal and non-mandated purposes such as buying immovable assets," it said.