ED Attaches FDs of Hyderabad Company That Dumped Hazardous Waste in Violation of Anti-pollution Laws

The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday said it has attached fixed deposits worth Rs 90 lakh of a Hyderabad-based company in a money laundering case against it linked to alleged dumping of hazardous waste in violation of anti-pollution laws.

The action has been taken against the company, Sree Venkateshwara Industries, under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), it said in a statement.

The money laundering case of the ED stems from a complaint filed by the  Telangana State Pollution Control Board (TSPCB) before the court of Metropolitan Magistrate, Cyberabad at Medchal.

It was alleged by the board that the company was disposing “hazardous waste material without proper treatment in violation of the prescribed rules and regulations stipulated by the TSPCB under various sections of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act.”

Sree Venkateshwara Industries and its partners “did not” comply with the statutory requirement of treatment of hazardous waste generated in their premises and did not send the same to the treatment, storage and disposal facility of Hyderabad waste management project, the ED probe found.

Instead, the agency alleged, the firm disposed the waste by giving it to brick manufacturers.  The company and its partners generated “proceeds of crime” amounting to Rs 90 lakh which has been provisionally attached under the PMLA, it said.