The probe allegedly revealed a sophisticated international banking fraud involving a criminal conspiracy between the company’s management and a senior bank manager at the OBC branch in Karnal, Haryana. 

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday launched simultaneous raids across 11 locations in Delhi, Haryana, and Goa to probe money-laundering into an alleged ₹155.21 crore fraud targeting the Oriental Bank of Commerce and a consortium of other banks.

Spearheaded by the ED’s Chandigarh Zonal Office, the crackdown focused on properties tied to Ashok Mittal, Sourabh Dhingra, Bharat Bhushan Mittal, and Raman Singhal who are under the glare in the investigated against Mahesh Timber Pvt Ltd which is primarily engaged in the import, trading, and sawing of timber and commercial wood products. They have main offices in New Delhi and Karnal, Haryana.

The ED took up the First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Mahesh Timber Pvt Ltd, its directors and others for offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

criminal conspiracy

The probe allegedly revealed a sophisticated international banking fraud involving a criminal conspiracy between the company’s management and a senior bank manager at the OBC branch in Karnal, Haryana. The accused company owned a subsidiary in Singapore called Mahesh Timber (Singapore) Ltd. Subsequently, the company opened Foreign Letters of Credit (FLCs) to transfer funds.

According to the ED, the accused fraudulently enhanced FLCs through alleged unauthorised SWIFT amendments without corresponding entries in the bank’s internal core accounting software ‘Finacle’, causing an alleged wrongful loss of approximately ₹155.21 crore to Oriental Bank of Commerce and consortium banks.

The bank manager allegedly handed over the original financial documents directly to the accused company without keeping office copies or charging the mandatory amendment fees, the agency said.

Officials said the raids have been underway since early Tuesday in close coordination with the police, based on certain inputs against the persons accused in the case.

Published on June 16, 2026