ED arrests three accused in DJW-SEPL case

Subscribed with another email? Logout and Login with that one. Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription The View From India Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective. First Day First Show News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming. Today's Cache Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day. Science For All The weekly newsletter from science writers takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in! Data Point Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers THEdge At the cutting edge of education and careers Health Matters Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there Gender Agenda Stories from beyond the binary. The Hindu On Books Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features. Published - May 09, 2026 06:39 pm IST - NEW DELHI File photo of the Enforcement Directorate (ED). | Photo Credit: PTI The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested three accused in a case alleging that DJW Electric Power Projects Private Limited fraudulently took loans from various entities. Those arrested have been identified as two company directors, Dandamudi Venkateswara Rao and D. Shanthi Kiran, and Mr. Rao’s brother D. Avanindra Kumar. The ED had secured their custody till May 12 from the court concerned. The agency has alleged laundering of about ₹284 crore in the matter. Its investigation is based on a case registered by the police in Gurugram, against DJW Electric Power Project. The total loan amount involved in the alleged fraud was about ₹58 crore. “...while the accounting records of DJW showed that loans were being repaid to the original lenders, the ED investigation revealed that the banking RTGS system was misused. The RTGS mandate forms fraudulently mentioned the names of actual lenders but provided bank details of Kolkata-based shell entities,” the ED alleged. As claimed, the loan repayment funds were siphoned off to shell companies including Nexus International, Bhavtarini Sales Pvt. Ltd., and Gabel Trading Co. The agency said further probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) led to registration of another case and a parallel money laundering investigation involving Sravanthi Energy Private Limited (SEPL), also controlled by Mr. Rao. “It was unearthed that SEPL had been fraudulently paying approximately ₹75 lakh per month as ‘consultancy fees’ to a shell entity named Verset Technologies Pvt. Ltd., which had no office or employees and was registered in the name of D.V. Rao’s father-in-law. Through this sham arrangement, ₹89.36 crore was illicitly diverted,” it said. The ED alleged that simultaneously, SEPL booked bogus purchases of over ₹139 crore through fake invoices from more than 100 shell entities without any supply of goods or services. “These payments were received back in cash by D.V. Rao and his family. The total proceeds of crime identified against D.V. Rao and his family in the SEPL case is about ₹228 crore,” said the agency. It alleged that Mr. Rao had earlier defaulted on huge amounts to banks, owing to which the SEPL account turned into non-performing asset. “This compelled the banks to resort to a compulsory One-Time Settlement (OTS), resulting in a loss of more than ₹1,500 crore to the banking system...D.V. Rao was systematically siphoning off funds from the company for his personal enrichment. In this manner, he has defrauded not only the banks but also the investors in the company. Notably, several Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) banks hold minority shares in the company,” the ED said. Earlier, during searches, the ED had seized gold and diamond jewellery valued at about ₹5 crore and multiple luxury vehicles. It has also provisionally attached assets worth close to ₹24 crore. Copyright© 2026, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. Terms & conditions | Institutional Subscriber Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

ED arrests three accused in DJW-SEPL case

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ED arrests three accused in DJW-SEPL case

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