Page 61 - Enforcement Directorate

Vivo PMLA case: Delhi Court extends judicial custody of accused till Dec 7

he four accused are -- Lava International MD Hari Om Rai, Chinese national Guangwen alias Andrew Kuang, Chartered Accountants Nitin Garg and Rajan Malik

Money laundering charges are not ground to deny passport renewal: Court

Merely being prosecuted on money laundering charges is not a sufficient ground to deny permission for passport renewal, a special court here has said while granting nod to former Maharashtra minister Anil Deshmukh's son to apply for renewal of his passport. Special Judge R N Rokade on Wednesday allowed the application filed by Salil Deshmukh, seeking a direction to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to return his seized passport so that he can apply for renewal. The ED has accused Salil Deshmukh along with his father - former state home minister Anil Deshmukh - and some others of money laundering. Salil Deshmukh was not formally arrested in the case by the ED. After the agency named him as an accused in its chargesheet, he appeared before the special court which granted him bail in November 2022. In his application, Salil Deshmukh said his passport expired in January 2022. He sought permission to apply for renewal of the passport for a period of 10 years. The agency opposed the ple

Probe in Mahadev betting app scam transferred to Mumbai Crime branch

Mumbai Police registered a case against 32 people, including the director of Dabur, Gaurav Burman and company chairman Mohit Burman, alleging a connection to the betting app scam

ED files fresh chargesheet against Sanjay Bhandari in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday filed a fresh charge sheet against alleged middleman and arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, currently based in the UK, and others as part of a money laundering investigation against them, official sources said. The supplementary prosecution complaint has been filed in a local court and under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said. The agency has named Bhandari, his relative S Chadha and NRI businessman C C Thampi in the charge sheet, the sources said. The court is expected to take cognisance of this complaint later this week. The first charge sheet against Bhandari was filed by the ED in 2020. Bhandari is stated by the ED to have "absconded" to the UK in 2016 and he has been declared a proclaimed offender by a special PMLA court in the money laundering case linked to possession of alleged undisclosed assets abroad. The UK government approved Bhandari's extradition to India in January this year, acting o

Decoding the ED: Understanding its history, powers, and criticism

The ED is often in the news, sometimes for raids or cases against political leaders in the country and sometimes for acting against corporate entities. But what is the ED? We explain it here

Gandhis must pay for sins: BJP on ED's attachment of National Herald assets

The BJP on Wednesday hit back at the Congress over its condemnation of the seizure of National Herald assets, as the ruling party asserted that the Gandhi family must pay for its "sins". Former Union minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad accused the Gandhi family of capturing National Herald assets by converting the now-defunct newspaper's properties into its "personal properties". An online version of the publication is, however, available. Addressing a press conference, Prasad asked the Congress to explain as to how the action taken against "rank dishonesty and loot of public property" can be described as negation of democracy. After the ED attached assets of the Congress-promoted National Herald on Tuesday, the Congress said such "petty vendetta tactics" cannot frighten it and dubbed the probe agency a "coalition partner" of the BJP. Its leader K C Venugopal slammed the BJP and the probe agencies as "murderers of democracy". Prasad said the newspaper had prime properties

Shareholders do not become owners: Sibal on ED order on Herald case

Earlier, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party over ED's action to attach properties worth 751 crores in the National Herald Case

Edtech major Byju's faces ED heat for Rs 9.4k crore 'forex violation'

Legal proceedings against the edtech firm have begun

National Herald probe: ED attaches Rs 752 cr assets of Cong-linked firms

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said it has attached immovable assets and equity shares worth about Rs 752 crore as part of its ongoing money laundering investigation against the Congress-promoted National Herald newspaper and companies linked to it. The provisional attachment order came as the elections in five states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram are in progress and the counting of votes is scheduled to be held on December 3. The Congress called the agency action as "petty vendetta tactics" and dubbed the ED a "coalition partner" of the BJP which, it claimed, is staring at a certain defeat in the assembly polls. The federal probe agency alleged in a statement that in this case the shareholders and donors of the Congress were "cheated" by the office-bearers of AJL and the party. A provisional attachment order has been issued by the federal probe agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Associated Journals Lt

Always been fully compliant with FEMA regulations: Byju's assures investors

The edtech giant has reached out to all its investors regarding an alleged show-cause notice issued by ED and assured them that the firm has not violated any foreign exchange rules

ED issues notice to Byju's for violation of forex rules, firm denies

The agency has alleged violations by the company worth Rs 9,000 crore ($1.1 billion) under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), the television channel reported

ED searches Congress' Telangana candidate Vivek Venkatswamy in FEMA case

The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday searched the premises of Congress candidate from Telangana's Chennur seat Vivek Venkatswamy and some others as part of a foreign exchange violation probe, official sources said. They said the federal agency is undertaking the searches under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in Chennur and Hyderabad, they said. The former MP, early this month, had resigned from the BJP and joined the Congress in the presence of party leader Rahul Gandhi in Hyderabad. With declared assets worth over Rs 600 crore, Vivek is the richest politician contesting the November 30 assembly polls in Telangana. Vivek and his wife own movable assets valued at Rs 377 crore, mostly shares in various companies, including his own Visaka Industries, which was founded in 1981. The family's immovable assets stood at over Rs 225 crore. According to the affidavit filed by him, Vivek and his wife have liabilities or loans worth Rs 41.5 crore. Vivek's annu

Amway generated proceeds of crime of over Rs 4k cr via MLM scheme: ED

Amway India, which runs a multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme, generated proceeds of crime worth more than Rs 4,000 crore and a substantial part of it was siphoned off to overseas bank accounts, the Enforcement Directorate alleged on Monday. The federal agency said this after filing a charge-sheet against Amway India Enterprise Pvt Ltd before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Hyderabad. The court took cognisance of the prosecution's complaint on Monday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said in a statement. The criminal case of money laundering registered by the ED stems from multiple FIRs filed by the Telangana Police against Amway and its directors. It is alleged that they were promoting an "illegal money circulation scheme under the guise of sale of goods" and "cheating the general public by promising them very high commissions/incentives through simple enrolment of new members and by claiming that these commissions/incentives would continue in ...

SC seeks responses from Centre, ED on Sanjay Singh's plea against arrest

The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from the Centre and the Enforcement Directorate on AAP leader Sanjay Singh's plea challenging his arrest and remand in a money laundering case related to alleged Delhi excise policy scam. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti issued notice to the Centre and the ED, and asked them to submit their responses before December 11. The bench ordered that if Singh files a petition for regular bail in the interregnum, then it should be considered independent of the observation made in the Delhi High Court's judgement dated October 20. Singh, who was arrested on October 4 in the case, had moved the top court challenging the High Court verdict. In its order, the High Court had refused to interfere with his arrest in the case, saying it could not impute a political motive to a premier investigating agency in the absence of material on record. It had also said that Singh's was not a "prima facie case of no evidence at all". The ED's money

ED files prosecution complaint against Met Technologies director, 8 others

ED investigation revealed that representatives of the said company targeted gullible residents in the USA, UK, and Australia, according to the press release

Vivo PMLA case: Delhi court seeks ED's response on Lava MD's bail plea

A court here on Saturday sought a response from the Enforcement Directorate on an application filed by the MD of Lava International Company seeking bail in a money-laundering case against Chinese phone-maker Vivo. Special Judge Tarun Yogesh issued a notice to the ED on the application filed by Hari Om Rai and directed the central probe agency to file its reply by November 29, when the court will further hear the matter. The court passed the direction after hearing arguments from Advocate Nitesh Rana, who, appearing for the accused, claimed that since Rai was not required for further custodial interrogation, no purpose will be served by keeping him in custody. "Accused has no role in money laundering and in the schedule offence. He is just an entrepreneur," Rana told the judge. Rai was arrested last month with a few others under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The ED has alleged that Vivo "illegally" transferred Rs 62,476 crore to China in order to avoid .

Delhi govt sends Bamnoli land acquisition report to CBI, ED; seeks probe

The Delhi government has sent to the CBI and the ED a report of Vigilance Minister Atishi alleging "prima facie complicity" of Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar in the Bamnoli land acquisition matter, requesting a probe, government sources said on Thursday. Kumar has denied any wrongdoing and alleged that "mudslinging" was being done by people with "vested interests" against whom vigilance action was taken for corruption. On Wednesday, the 670-page report of Vigilance Minister Atishi was submitted to Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's office. It has demanded Kumar's suspension and claimed that the scale of "undue benefits" in the matter was more than Rs 897 crore. "The report was referred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after the chief minister gave his go ahead," a source said. Compensation for 19-acre land in southwest Delhi's Bamnoli village for the NHAI's Dwarka Expressway project was allegedly raised

ED issues fresh summons to millionaire Singham in NewsClick PMLA case

A fresh summons was issued by the Enforcement Directorate to China-based American millionaire Neville Roy Singham for questioning in connection with a money laundering probe linked to online news portal NewsClick, officials said on Thursday. The 69-year-old businessman, who is accused of spreading Chinese propaganda in India, is stated to be currently based in Shanghai. The summons were sent to Singham recently on his personal email ID and also through the Chinese diplomatic channels after the ED routed them through the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the officials said. This is understood to be the second summons issued to Singham by the ED. The first was issued last year after the federal agency launched its investigation in 2021. The request has been sent under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) signed between India and China in 2003. Under this agreement, both countries shall promote cooperation for exchange of information on legal matters and cooperation in other le

NewsClick case: ED summons US millionaire Neville Singham to join probe

Neville Roy Singham's name first surfaced in a report by The New York Times, which alleged that the US millionaire was involved in spreading Chinese propaganda worldwide.

Waqf Board money laundering case: ED gets 3-day custody of three accused

As per ED, the money laundering case pertains to sell purchase of land for Rs. 13.40 crores. It is alleged that the transaction involves proceeds of crime