ED conducts searches at 7 places in Rs 5,000-cr money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday searched the premises of Sanjeev Mahajan and other businessmen in connection with a money laundering probe involving over Rs 5,000 crore, officials said.

An ED official told IANS that searches were conducted at seven locations, the premises of Mahajan in Mayur Vihar Phase-1 and Babar Road in Delhi. The businessman is a close aide of Congress leader Ahmed Patel.

Premises of Ghanshyam Pandey in Dwarka and Lakshmi Chand Gupta in Laxmi Nagar and Arvind Gupta in Ghaziabad were also searched. The three are linked to the Sandesara Group owned by Chetan and Nitin Sandesara.

The official also said that they have seized several computers and mobile phones and recovered some documents.

ED sources said the raids were conducted as part of a probe into Sandesara Group that was allegedly involved in high-value suspicious transactions to the tune of Rs 5,383 crore.

The owners of Sandesara Group are suspected to have some 300 benami properties.

On November 1, the financial probe agency arrested Gagan Dhawan from his south Delhi residence on the charge of money laundering.

The ED alleged that he was involved in diverting the amount to purchase properties and other shell companies.

According to ED officials, Dhawan allegedly aided bank loan frauds related to the Vadodara-based Sterling Biotech company.

The ED had registered a case of money laundering following a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case against Sterling Biotech, its directors Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara, Vilas Joshi and several others in connection with the bank fraud case.

--IANS

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