The Enforcement Directorate has registered a money laundering case against Subhash Chandra under the PMLA over an alleged Rs 1,322 crore loan fraud on LIC Housing Finance Limited. The allegations are those of the lender and the CBI FIR, they are untested, and Chandra’s response to the ED case was awaited.
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case against Essel Group Chairman Subhash Chandra under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) over an alleged loan fraud that caused a loss of Rs 1,322 crore to Life Insurance Corporation Housing Finance Limited (LICHFL), officials said on Monday [ED money laundering case based on CBI FIR on LICHFL complaint against Subhash Chandra].
The ED has taken cognisance of a First Information Report (FIR) of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which was registered on the complaint of LICHFL. Chandra is alleged to have inflated his net worth to obtain loans from LICHFL and then defaulted on them.
Background: the CBI FIR
The CBI FIR was registered on August 31, 2026 by the agency’s Banking Securities and Fraud Branch, on a written complaint from LICHFL General Manager Neeta Menghani, and became public on September 5. It names Chandra and the directors of four borrower companies, and invokes charges including criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal breach of trust.
The FIR also names Vasant Sagar Properties Private Limited and its director Pankaj Suroliya, Pan India Infra Projects Private Limited, Digital Subscriber Management and Consultancy Services Private Limited and its director Amish Pandya, and Spirit Infra Power and Multi Ventures Private Limited.
The two loan facilities
According to LICHFL’s complaint, which forms part of the FIR, two facilities totalling Rs 980 crore are involved. The first is a Rs 500 crore facility to Vasant Sagar Properties Private Limited, with Pan India Infra Projects Private Limited as co-borrower. It was sanctioned as a home-entity loan for takeover, top-up and business expansion and secured by a continuing guarantee dated March 28, 2018, executed by Chandra.
The second is a Rs 480 crore rental-discounting facility under a rental-securitisation scheme, extended through a different loan account to Digital Subscriber Management and Consultancy Services Private Limited, with Spirit Infra Power and Multi Ventures Private Limited as co-borrower. It too was secured by a continuing guarantee executed by Chandra, the FIR alleges.
The net-worth certificates
LICHFL says the Vasant Sagar facility was sanctioned partly on a net-worth certificate submitted by Chandra, issued by DJM and Co on March 28, 2018, which certified his net worth at about Rs 59,000 crore (Rs 59,113 crore as of March 31, 2017). The digital facility was sanctioned partly on a certificate issued by chartered accountants MPJ and Co on July 6, 2018, which put his net worth at Rs 40,562 crore.
Both loans later went into default, LICHFL says, and its complaint puts the resulting loss at Rs 1,322 crore.
What the complaint alleges
The complaint says Chandra, acting in collusion with the four borrower companies and their officers and directors, defrauded and cheated LICHFL into advancing the loans, which the borrowers have since misappropriated. It alleges that he created false documents showing an inflated net worth, and that funds were misapplied and the personal guarantor’s assets stripped to defeat recoveries by the lender.
The CBI complaint further records that in later proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, Chandra denied having the net worth stated in the certificates. According to the FIR, he put his net worth in 2024 at Rs 31.79 crore and, for 2017-18, at no more than Rs 40,000 crore.
The personal insolvency proceedings
The ED case follows separate personal insolvency proceedings against Chandra as a personal guarantor, which were initiated by Indiabulls Housing Finance Limited. On August 25, 2026, a third member of an NCLT bench, Nilesh Sharma, approved a repayment plan under which creditors would receive about Rs 6.5 crore from Chandra’s personal estate against admitted claims of roughly Rs 22,006 crore, after creditors holding about 80.81 per cent of the voting share backed it. LICHFL was among the lenders that opposed the plan.
On September 1, a newly constituted five-member NCLT bench stayed that order and barred Chandra from alienating his properties. Chandra has challenged that order before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), arguing among other things that the NCLT had no power to constitute a five-member bench. On September 29, the NCLAT fixed October 29 and 30 for hearing his interim relief applications.
Chandra’s side
A comment from Chandra on the ED case was awaited when its registration became known. A spokesperson for Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited said the ED case was filed against Chandra in his personal capacity and has no bearing on the company or its operations.
In a statement issued on August 30, 2026, before the FIR was registered, Chandra’s office had said the claims remaining against him as a personal guarantor stood at Rs 4,262 crore, and that the Rs 1,322 crore outstanding to LIC Housing Finance had been offered for settlement, with part security available. His side has also said the figure of Rs 22,000 crore reflects claims filed in the guarantor proceedings and not money he personally borrowed.
Why the ED case matters
A PMLA case is built on an underlying offence, and here the ED has taken the CBI FIR as that foundation. The ED’s inquiry runs separately from the CBI’s investigation and from the insolvency proceedings, and it adds a second layer of scrutiny to the same loans without deciding any of the questions the other proceedings are still examining.
The allegations are those of LICHFL and are subject to investigation. No finding of guilt has been recorded against Chandra, the borrower companies or their directors, and the presumption of innocence applies to all of them.
Subject: Money laundering case under the PMLA, based on a CBI FIR on a complaint by LIC Housing Finance Limited
Accused named in the CBI FIR: Subhash Chandra and directors of Vasant Sagar Properties, Pan India Infra Projects, Digital Subscriber Management and Consultancy Services, and Spirit Infra Power and Multi Ventures
CBI FIR registered: August 31, 2026
ED case made known: November 2, 2026