News Analysis India

Tag: PMLA

  • Enforcement Directorate arrests two in Shakti Bhog bank loan fraud PMLA case

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday said it has arrested two operatives, who allegedly provided fake business entries, in connection with its probe into money laundering charges against Shakti Bhog food company in an alleged over Rs 3,269 crore bank fraud case.

    The arrests came after the agency raided over a dozen premises in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh on September 17.

    “Accommodation entry providers Ashok Kumar Goel and Devki Nandan Garg were arrested from Delhi,” the agency said in a statement, adding Goel was arrested on September 20 and Garg the next day under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

    It said a local court had earlier sent Goel and Garg in ED till custody till Friday and it has now been extended for five more days.

    “During searches, various incriminating documents and digital evidence have been traced and seized,” the ED claimed.

    It alleged that “Shakti Bhog Foods Limited had procured fake sale-purchase invoices from the dummy entities under the command and control of Ashok Kumar Goel and Devki Nandan Garg without having any genuine business transactions”.

    “They acquired the proceeds of crime and assisted Shakti Bhog Foods Limited in generation, acquisition, layering and siphoning off its loans funds,” it said.

    The agency had earlier arrested the chairman and managing director of Shakti Bhog Foods Limited K K Sharma and a chartered accountant named Raman Bhuraria in this case.

    The ED’s money laundering case against Shakti Bhog Foods Limited was filed after studying a CBI FIR that charged it and others for criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal misconduct.

    The CBI FIR came about after the State Bank of India (SBI) registered a complaint against the company.

    According to the SBI, the directors allegedly falsified accounts and forged documents to siphon off public funds.

    The 24-year-old company, which is into manufacturing and selling wheat, flour, rice, biscuits, cookies and others, had grown organically as it ventured into food-related diversification over a decade with a turnover growth of Rs 1,411 crore in 2008 to Rs 6,000 crore in 2014, the bank complaint had said.

  • Will seek transfer of Mehbooba Mufti’s plea in PMLA case to Supreme Court: Centre to Delhi HC

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday told the Delhi High Court that it will seek the transfer of Mehbooba Mufti’s challenge to the Constitutional validity of a provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to the Supreme Court.

    In view of the Centre’s stand, a bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh adjourned the hearing on the former J&K Chief Minsiter’s petition till September 30.

    “Several petitions concerning various provisions and scheme of PMLA…are pending. Matter has been assigned to a special bench and parties have exchanged questions, one of which is directly in question here,” said Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing on behalf of the Centre.

    “Can we say you would prefer a transfer petition?” the court questioned the Solicitor General who responded, “Yes, you can. I intend to move a transfer petition. If they agree, we can do it together,” Solicitor General added.

    Additional Solicitor General SV Raju added that the questions before the Supreme Court included issues concerning the commencement of investigation under PMLA. Senior counsel Nitya Ramakrishnan, representing Mufti, said that the matter was “ripe for hearing” before the high court. “I’m happy if we can move (Supreme Court) together,” she added.

    On September 9, the court had listed Mufti’s plea for final disposal on September 14.

    Mufti, in her plea filed in March, has sought to declare section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act as void and inoperative, being unfairly discriminatory, bereft of safeguards, and violative of Article 20(3) of the Constitution.

    Section 50 of the Act empowers the authority, that is, officers of ED, to summon any person to give evidence or produce records. All persons summoned are bound to answer the questions put to them and to produce the documents as required by the ED officers, failing which they can be penalized under the Act.

    She has also challenged issuance of summons to her by the ED in a money laundering case and sought a stay which was refused by the court earlier.

    The 61-year-old leader, who was released last year after more than a year in detention following the scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, was served notice to appear at the ED headquarters in the national capital.

    Initially, the ED had summoned Mufti for March 15 but it did not insist for her personal appearance at that time. Thereafter, she was summoned for March 22.

    Mufti, in her petition, said she has received summons from the ED under the provisions of the PMLA, purporting to call for ‘evidence’ on pain of punishment, whereas she is, to all intents and purposes, a subject of investigation.

    “She has not been informed if she is being summoned as an accused or as a witness. She has also not been informed of what she is being summoned in connection with and the scheduled offence under the PMLA which gave rise to the proceedings in respect of which impugned summons has been issued to her. The petitioner is not the subject of investigation, nor is she an accused, in any of the scheduled offences to the best of her knowledge,” the plea said.

    The plea claimed that ever since Mufti was released from the preventive detention following the formal abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, there have been a series of hostile acts by the State, against her, acquaintances and old family friends, who have all been summoned by the ED and a roving inquiry about her personal, political and financial affairs was made, in the course of which their personal devices have been seized.

    Earlier, Solicitor General and advocate Amit Mahajan, representing the ED, had said there was no need to issue a formal notice to them as they are already appearing before the court and said they will file a short note on the issue of question of law.

  • Delhi High Court fixes Mehbooba Mufti’s plea in PMLA case for final hearing

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Thursday fixed for final hearing a plea by former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti challenging the Constitutional validity of certain provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

    A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh listed the matter for September 14 for final disposal of the petition.

    Mufti, in her plea filed in March, has also challenged issuance of summons to her by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case.

    She had stay on the summons but the court refused to grant the relief at this stage.

    The 61-year-old leader, who was released last year after more than a year in detention following the scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, was served notice to appear at the ED headquarters in the national capital.

    Initially, the ED had summoned Mufti on March 15 but did not insist on her personal appearance at that time.

    ​ALSO READ | ‘Deliberately distorted’: Mehbooba defends her remarks asking Taliban to follow true Sharia

    Thereafter, she was summoned on March 22.

    Mufti, represented through senior advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan, has sought quashing of the summons.

    She has also sought that Section 50 of the PMLA be declared void and inoperative, being unfairly discriminatory, bereft of safeguards, and violative of Article 20(3) of the Constitution.

    Section 50 of the Act empowers the authority, that is, officers of ED, to summon any person to give evidence or produce records.

    All persons summoned are bound to answer the questions put to them and to produce the documents as required by the ED officers, failing which they can be penalized under the Act.

    She has also sought an interim stay on the summons until the question of law in relation to constitutionality of Section 50 of the Act is decided.

    Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and advocate Amit Mahajan, representing the ED, had earlier mentioned that there was no need to issue formal notice to them as they are already appearing before the court and said they would file a short note on the question of law.

    Mufti, in her petition, said she has received summons from the ED under the provisions of the PMLA, purporting to call for ‘evidence’ on pain of punishment, whereas she is, to all intents and purposes, a subject of investigation.

    “She has not been informed if she is being summoned as an accused or as a witness. She has also not been informed of what she is being summoned in connection with and the scheduled offence under the PMLA which gave rise to the proceedings in respect of which impugned summons has been issued to her.”

    “The petitioner is not the subject of investigation, nor is she an accused, in any of the scheduled offences to the best of her knowledge,” the plea said.

    Ever since Mufti was released from the preventive detention following the formal abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, there have been a series of hostile acts by the State against her as well as her acquaintances and old family friends, who have all been summoned by the ED, it said.

    A roving inquiry about her personal, political and financial affairs was made, during which their personal devices have been seized, the plea alleged.

  • Court summons two West Bengal ministers, three others in Narada sting tapes case

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: A special court on Wednesday ordered issuance of summonses to West Bengal ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim besides three others after taking cognizance of a chargesheet by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in the Narada sting tapes case.

    Sources in it said that the ED, which is probing the money laundering aspect of the Narada sting operation, had submitted the chargesheet against the five in the special court earlier in the day. The special CBI judge taking cognizance of the prosecution complaint of the ED, which is equivalent to chargesheet, ordered the appearance of the accused on November 16.

    Apart from the two ministers and Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra, cognizance was also taken against former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee and suspended IPS officer SMH Mirza. The court directed that the summonses to Mukherjee, Hakim and Mitra be served through the office of the West Bengal assembly speaker since the three are MLAs.

    Summonses to the other two are to be served directly at their addresses, the court directed.

    Sources in the central agency said, “The ED has prayed for awarding maximum punishment to the accused for committing the offence of money laundering and confiscation of the bribe money accepted by the accused”.

    The Narada sting operation was conducted by Narada news founder Mathew Samuel for over two years in West Bengal. Samuel had formed a fictitious company and approached several TMC ministers, MPs and leaders for favours.

    In the video footage released in 2014 just before the Lok Sabha polls several TMC leaders were allegedly seen accepting money from a person posing as a businessman. The man was purpotedly offering the money to get favours for starting a business in the state.

    Mathew Samuels, CEO of the Narada news portal, posed as the businessman in the purpoted video. The CBI had arrested Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee in the Narada bribery case in May this year.

    Sultan Ahmed, a Trinamool Congress MP, who too figured in the video, died of heart attack in September, 2017.

  • Narada case: ED names two Mamata ministers, TMC MLA in chargesheet

    By Express News Service

    KOLKATA: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) submitted chargesheet in a Kolkata court in connection with the Narada sting operation case naming two Trinamool Congress ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, TMC MLA Madan Mitra, former mayor of Kolkata Sovan Chatterjee and IPS officer SMH Mirza as accused.

    The ED also appealed to the court for further investigation against Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of Opposition in Bengal Assembly who joined the BJP months before the Assembly polls, Mukul Roy, who returned to TMC’s fold from BJP, TMC MPs Kakali Ghosh Dastidar, Prasun Banerjee, Aparupa Poddar and former MLA Iqbal Ahmed.

    The court also approved the petition of the central agency seeking permission to summon the accused asking them to appear in its Kolkata office on November 16. The court directed the ED to send summons to the three TMC lawmakers through the office of the Speaker of West Bengal Assembly and allowed the central agency to summon Chatterjee and Mirza directly.

    “The ED submitted the chargesheet holding the five accused guilty of laundering money that they procured during the course of Narada sting operation. They have been summoned by the agency to follow the nest course of legal action,” said ED’s lawyer Abhijit Bhadra.

    Hakim is the transport and housing minister and Mukherjee looks after panchayat affairs in Mamata’s cabinet.

    On May 17, a fortnight after the TMC returned to power with the thumping majority for the third straight term, the CBI had arrested the TMC MLAs and former Kolkata mayor and they were granted bail by Kolkata high court days later.

    The arrests came after governor Jagdeep Dhankhar’s clearance giving the CBI a go-ahead to prosecute the TMC MLAs which triggered a political uproar. The Speaker of the Assembly said he was not aware of the action against the legislators and chief minister Mamata Banerjee described the arrests as political vendetta against TMC’s victory in the Assembly polls.

    The sting operation was conducted by Narada news founder Mathew Samuel in 2014 by floating a fictitious company. In the sting operation, Samuel and a representative of the fictitious company were seen approaching people having resemblance with the TMC leaders, whose names were mentioned in the complaint, and offering them bribes.

    The video footage of the sting operation was aired days before the 2016 Assembly elections in Bengal.

  • ED summons Shiv Sena leader and Maharashtra minister Anil Parab in money laundering case

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Shiv Sena leader and Maharashtra Transport Minister Anil Parab for questioning in the money laundering case registered against former state minister Anil Deshmukh and others, officials said on Sunday.

    Parab, also a minister of parliamentary affairs in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, has been asked by the ED to depose before the investigating officer of the case at the agency’s office in south Mumbai on Tuesday, they said.

    Deshmukh has already skipped at least five summonses issued to him by the ED in this case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

    The probe pertains to the criminal investigation being carried out by the ED in the alleged Rs 100 crore bribery-cum-extortion racket in the Maharashtra police establishment that led to Deshmukh’s resignation in April.

    The ED case against Deshmukh, who was earlier the home minister in the MVA government, and others came after the CBI booked him in the corruption case related to allegations of at least Rs 100 crore bribe made by former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh.

    Deshmukh had said Singh made the allegations against him after he was removed from the post of Mumbai Police Commissioner.

  • ED summons Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee, wife in money laundering case

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned MP Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, and his wife for questioning in a money laundering case linked to an alleged coal scam in the state, officials said on Saturday.

    Abhishek Banerjee represents the Diamond Harbour seat in Lok Sabha and is also the national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

    He has been summoned to appear before the investigating officer of the case here on September 6 while his wife Rujira has been sent a similar summon under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for September 1.

    Few others linked to the case have also been summoned to appear on different dates next month, the officials said.

    The case, filed under criminal sections of the (PMLA), was filed by the ED after studying a November, 2020 FIR of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that alleged a multi-crore coal pilferage scam related to the Eastern Coalfields Ltd mines in the state’s Kunustoria and Kajora areas in and around Asansol.

    Local state operative Anup Majhi alias Lala is alleged to be the prime suspect in the case.

    The ED had earlier claimed that Abhishek Banerjee was a beneficiary of funds obtained from this illegal trade. He has been denying all charges.

  • Court allows return of Nirav Modi’s confiscated assets to Punjab National Bank

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: A special court here has allowed “restoration” of properties worth Rs 440 crore of fugitive jeweler Nirav Modi, confiscated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), to the Punjab National Bank (PNB).

    Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi are accused of committing a Rs 14,000 crore scam by obtaining credit facilities fraudulently from the PNB, a public sector bank. The order was passed by VC Barde, special judge for Prevention of Money Laundering Act, last week.

    The detailed order became available on Thursday.

    The PNB in July 2021 had filed multiple applications seeking release of the properties mortgaged with the bank against the credit facilities extended to Nirav Modi’s two firms, Firestar Diamond International Private Ltd (FDIPL) and Firestar International (FIL).

    The applications were filed by PNB as an individual claimant and also as lead bank of the PNB consortium and authorized representative of the UBI consortium. The court allowed two pleas seeking the release of properties of FIL worth Rs 108.3 crore and those of FDIPL worth Rs 331.6 crore. “The claimants’ (banks) quantifiable loss has been recognized by the DRT (Debt Recovery Tribunal) who has passed judgments in their favor,” the court noted.

    During its probe, the ED attached several properties owned by Nirav Modi though his family members and these companies. Several of the properties were confiscated after he was declared a “fugitive economic offender” in December 2019.

    The bank and lenders’ consortium had objected to the confiscation, as the properties had been mortgaged with them when Modi and Choksi availed of Letters of Undertaking (LOUs). The court has now also directed the PNB to give an undertaking to return the properties or their value if directed in future.

    Nirav Modi and Choksi along with some bank officials are accused of cheating the Punjab National Bank of Rs 14,000 crore by obtaining LoUs fraudulently. LoUs are issued as a guarantee for the applicant to seek loans from overseas Indian banks.

    Nirav Modi is currently lodged in a UK jail and is fighting extradition to India.

  • ED issues fresh summons to ex-Maharashtra HM Anil Deshmukh in money laundering case 

    Express News Service

    MUMBAI: The arrest of former Maharashtra Home minister Anil Deshmukh seems to be inevitable.  The ED has issued fresh summons to Deshmukh to appear before it on Wednesday in connection with a money laundering case probe against him and others.

    Anil Deshmukh had approached the Supreme Court to avoid the arrest by the ED. However, the apex court refused to give relief to Deshmukh last Tuesday in this money laundering case.

    The Enforcement Directorate’s case against Deshmukh and others was made out after the CBI booked him in a corruption case related to allegations of at least Rs 100 crore bribery made by former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh.

    The ED recently also attached assets worth Rs 4.20 crore of Deshmukh and his family. 

    “We have investigated the money trail that connected to Deshmukh and his family. The money earned through  IPS transfer and other illegal means are reflecting on the bank accounts and we want to verify the details that were unearthed by us during the probe. Therefore, Deshmukh’s presence during the probe is very crucial, but he has been refusing to attend the probe despite the last several summonses,” he said requested anonymity.

    He said that if Deshmukh again refuses to attend the probe on Wednesday, then ED may issue a lookout notice against Deshmukh. “He will then be arrested to continue the probe,” he added. 

    Anil Deshmukh, personal secretary Sanjeev Palande in his statement with ED has admitted that they used to make money in the transfer of police officers.

    BJP leader Atul Bhatkalkar said accused the former Maharashtra home minister of away from the probe. “This is very shameful that Anil Deshmukh is not cooperating with ED for its probe in money laundering case,” Bhatkalkar said.

    On Tuesday, the Maharashtra government in its affidavit said that CBI was demanding an irrelevant document that has nothing to do with the Anil Deshmukh case. It stated that CBI can conduct the probe as per the directions of the court, but not as per its own wish.

    ED on Tuesday also filed Prosecution Complaint against another Opposition former MLA Vivekanand Shankar Patil and Karnala Nagari Sahakari Bank Ltd, Panvel. Vivekanand Shankar Patil has been a four-time MLA and also Ex-Chairman of Karnala Nagari Sahakari Bank Ltd, Panvel. 

    It was found that the management of the bank was under the control of Vivekanand Patil. ED arrested him on June 15 of this year in a Money laundering case that revealed fraud of approximately Rs. 560 Crore (including interest) in respect of 67 fictitious accounts. To hide the siphoning, the available funds were routed to these fictitious accounts and from these accounts to the several bank accounts of entities founded/controlled by Patil. 

    These funds were utilized by Karnala Charitable Trust, Karnala Sports Academy, etc. for construction of properties such as Sports Complex, College and Schools and for other personal gains, thereby using the proceeds of crime and projecting the same as un-tainted in contravention of the offense of money laundering.

  • Louis Berger bribery: Goa court orders framing of charges against Digambar Kamat, Churchill Alemao 

    By PTI
    PANAJI: A Goa court on Thursday ordered that the charges be framed against former chief minister Digambar Kamat and former state public works department minister Churchill Alemao in connection with money laundering in the Louis Berger bribery case.

    Responding to a complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), judge Sherin Paul at the special court in Mapusa ordered that the charges be framed against Kamat and Alemao, who have been asked to remain present before the court on July 26.

    The ED had registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in 2015, based on an FIR filed by the Goa police, following which a chargesheet was filed in this connection before the special court by the probe agency in 2019.

    It was alleged that US-based firm Louis Berger had bribed Indian officials with several crores of rupees to win two major water developmental projects in Goa and Guwahati.

    The Rs 1,031-crore project, funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), was approved when the Kamat-led government was in power, for augmenting water supply in south Goa and laying sewerage lines in the state’s major cities.

    The state police had earlier arrested Alemao, JICA project director Anand Wachasunder and Louis Berger’s vice-president Satyakam Mohanty in the case.

    It was alleged that the state ministers received bribes to the tune of $976,000 to grant contracts for the JICA-funded project in Goa.