Chennai: ED arrests criminal's brother in money laundering case(Update)

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested D. Senthil, brother of criminal Sridhar Dhanapal, on January 4th in Chennai, under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in a case related to extortion and acquiring properties from crime proceeds.

About 38 FIRs were filed in various police stations, in Tamil Nadu, against Dhanapal and his associates for various offences under the Indian Penal Code, 1860, the Arms Act, 1959, the Explosive Act, 1884 and the Tamil Nadu Public Property (Prevention of Damage and Loss) Act, 1992.

Under these reasons, the Chennai Zonal office of the ED initiated investigations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Based on the investigations, ED Chennai, in the month of September 2016, provisionally attached 5 properties having guide line value of Rs 6.19 crores registered in the name of Shridhar, 68 properties of about Rs 24.62 crores registered in the name of Sridhar's wife, 11 properties of about Rs 25.65 crores registered in the name of his daughter and 40 properties of about Rs 23.30 crores registered in the name of his brother, Senthil.

Further investigations disclosed that Senthil along with others, have knowingly assisted Sridhar in buying and selling huge number of immovable properties. The proceeds of crime derived from such activities are to the tune of Rs. 40 Crores as per the materials available on record.

Senthil was examined, wherein he had inter alia stated that he had acted only on the instructions of his elder brother Sridhar by purchasing immovable properties in his name with the money given by Sridhar and disposed off the properties as per the instructions and delivered the cash to the persons named by Sridhar.

Further, he did not reveal any information on the proceeds of the crime, being the sale proceeds of various immovable properties held in his name and transacted in the process.