ED seized Rs 16 Cr of Hyderabad based Alphageo India Ltd; company parked money in UAE

Hyderabad: Sleuths of Enforcement Directorate have seized Rs 16 crore of Hyderabad based Alphageo (India) Limited in the form of fixed deposit under the provisions of Foreign

Exchange Management Act, 1999(FEMA, 1999).

Having its office in Hyderabad Alphageo India Limited is engaged in providing seismic survey services to various oil exploration; production companies in India and abroad.

The federal agencies took up investigation based on allegations that the company has transferred and parked certain funds in the United Arab Emirates in contravention to the provisions of the FEMA, 1999.

During investigation, it was revealed, the company has been importing various equipment for seismic data acquisition from several suppliers based in France, Singapore, Netherlands.

Investigation further revealed that these equipment for seismic data acquisition were directly received from various suppliers by Alphageo however the payment for the same has been routed through an entity 'M/s Matrix Group DMCC', maintained and controlled by Rajiv Saxena, a Chartered Accountant based in Dubai and a hawala operator for these imports.

"By way of over invoicing import bills for these imports M/s Alphageo has parked funds into the account of M/s Matrix Group DMCC for the personal benefit of Dinesh Alla, Chairman and Managing Director of Alphageo (India) Limited. An amount of USD 25,34,628 was held outside India in contravention of Section 4 of FEMA, 1999. Therefore, the equivalent value of the foreign funds parked in the United Arab Emirates by Alphageo amounting to Rs. 16 Crore has been seized in India" ED sleuths said in a statement.