SC orders ED to handover Rs 4,025 crore worth of Bhushan Power & Steel properties to JSW Steel  

The Supreme Court on December 13 directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to hand over debt-laden assets of Bhushan Power & Steel worth Rs 4,025 crore, which were provisionally attached in 2019 in connection with an alleged money laundering scam by the former management.

Justice Bela M. A bench headed by Justice Trivedi and Justice SC Sharma ordered the release of properties of corporate debtor Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd, which have been provisionally attached to the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The properties are now to be handed over to JSW Steel Ltd (JSW), the successful liquidator in the insolvency proceedings of Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd (BPSL).

The Enforcement Directorate temporarily attached the assets under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in 2019 as the former management was wanted for an alleged bank loan fraud.

On December 14, the agency said it had returned Rs 4,025 crore worth of assets of the erstwhile Bhushan Steel and Power Limited to JSW Steel, the agency said on December 14. PMLA (recovery pending litigation). read with rule 3A of the PMLA recovery of property Rules;

In its order, the Supreme Court, based on the affidavit submitted by the ED, noted that the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering, 2002. , 2016, allowed JSW to control the properties of the corporate debtor, which were provisionally attached by the ECJ. The ED further submitted that, in view of the peculiar circumstances of the present case, JSW should be allowed to control the attached property.

BPSL has undergone a remarkable turnaround under the management and control of JSW Steel Ltd. As of now, BPSL provides direct and indirect employment to more than 20,000 individuals.Within a short span of three years, BPSL has doubled its operations steel production and manufacturing capacity, operating at only one-tenth of its liabilities at the start of bankruptcy proceedings.

JSW Steel Ltd was represented in the Supreme Court by senior advocates Neeraj Kishan Kaul and Gopal Jain, along with lawyers from Karanjawala & Co, led by Nandini Ghor (Senior Partner), Tahira Karanjawala (Partner), Swati Bharadwaj, Akarsh Sharma.Manvi Rastogi and Sharanya Ghosh.