After a thorough look into the allegation of irregularities against the operations of the Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) Transportation network in India, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) and the Delhi Police found that the its parent company, IL & FS was involved in money laundering of more than Rs 6,500. The source also said that the chairman, Ravi Parthasarathy was the mastermind of the operation and that about 14 Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) entered into the ITNL. Furthermore, there is a possibility that the probe agencies will recommend tracking the progress of a project and ensuring more accountability for the organization involved in road projects to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
The probe action revealed that road projects handled by IL & FS through ITNL, its subsidiaries, usually follow a pattern – Pathasarathy usually receive a call on which SPVs to invest into and post the contract was awarded after following the tender process, companies were floated to subcontract. This idea is to augment the costs of projects and after a while, the project became financially untenable. The money realized were they laundered. They were either used to acquire assets or evergreen of loans.
