Page 65 - Enforcement Directorate

ED conducts raids in MP, K'taka, Maharashtra to probe illegal betting apps

The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday said it has seized Rs 46.5 lakh "unaccounted" cash after it carried out raids in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra as part of an investigation against some illegal betting apps. The searches were launched on Friday and locations in Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Hubballi (Karnataka) and Mumbai were covered. The ED case stems from an FIR of Madhya Pradesh Police filed against the operations of illegal online betting applications, the central agency said in a statement. Illegal online betting apps such as Dhangames and other 'satta matka' (betting) apps were being operated in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and other parts of the country to lure unsuspecting masses, it said. The apps allowed users to register via a mobile number and transfer money to Dhangames wallet via UPI and indulge in betting. The ED alleged that illegal money generated through these apps were laundered through a web of bogus bank accounts opened by a person named Lokesh Verm

Two Ashoka Univ founders among 3 held by ED for alleged money laundering

The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday arrested two promoters of Chandigarh-based pharma company Parabolic Drugs and a company CA in a money laundering investigation linked to an alleged bank fraud, official sources said. Parabolic promoters Vineet Gupta and Pranav Gupta and Chartered Accountant S K Bansal were taken into custody under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said. The Guptas are the co-founders of Sonepat-based Ashoka University but had stepped down from their posts in 2022 at the educational institution after the CBI registered a case against them and the company in 2021. The three are expected to be produced before a special PMLA court in Chandigarh where the ED will seek their custody. The money laundering case stems from a CBI FIR in which the promoters and the pharma company were booked for allegedly defrauding a consortium led by Central Bank of India of Rs 1626.74 crore.

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English medium schools, OPS, cow dung among CM Gehlot's election guarantees

CM Ashok Gehlot unveiled five guarantees, including free laptops for first-year students in govt colleges, Rs 15-lakh insurance cover for natural disaster losses, and cow dung at Rs 2 per kg

ED raids pharma firm Parabolic Drugs, promoters in money laundering probe

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday carried out raids at multiple premises of Chandigarh-based pharmaceutical company Parabolic Drugs and its promoters as part of a money laundering investigation linked to an alleged bank loan fraud case, official sources said. The searches by the central agency covered a total of 17 premises in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Panchkula and Ambala in Haryana, they said. The action is being undertaken under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the ED case stems from a 2021 CBI FIR against the company and its promoters Vineet Gupta and Pranav Gupta among others, the sources said. The agency, as per the sources, is also looking at some documents from Sonepat-based Ashoka University as two directors of the company, Vineet Gupta and Pranav Gupta, have been associated with the educational institution in the past. The two had stepped down from all the boards and committees of the university in 2022, days after the CBI ...

Jyotipriyo Mallick: From Mamata loyalist to "scam-tainted" minister

Jyotipriyo Mallick, a senior TMC leader, saw his four-decade-long political journey take a severe hit as the Enforcement Directorate arrested him on Friday in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged multi-crore ration distribution scam in the state. Sixty-five-year-old Mallick presently holds the portfolios of Forest Affairs and Non-Conventional and Renewable Energy in the Mamata Banerjee government. He was the West Bengal Food Supplies Minister from 2011 to 2021, a period during which the alleged irregularities in ration distribution reportedly took place. Mallick stepped into politics as a leader of the Congress students' wing Chatra Parishad - in the early eighties during his college years, inspired by then-firebrand mass leaders Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi and Mamata Banerjee. Born into a middle-class family in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district in 1958, he delved into politics while pursuing a career in law. Recognizing his organizational skills, a local

ED arrests Bengal minister Jyotipriyo Mallick in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate has arrested West Bengal minister Jyotipriyo Mallick in a money laundering case linked to an alleged multi-core ration distribution scam in the state, official sources said on Friday. The minister was apprehended under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in the early hours of Friday following over 17-18 hours of questioning, they said. He will be produced before a local court where the ED will seek his custody."I am a victim of a great conspiracy," the TMC minister said after being arrested by ED in connection with the alleged ration distribution scam. Earlier on Thursday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee threatened to file a police complaint if anything happens to Mallick during the questioning as he was unwell and had several medical ailments. The central agency had launched searches at Mallick's premises on Thursday. It also searched his ancestral house on Amherst Street in central Kolkata. The alleged scam pertains to reported ...

ED attaches assets worth Rs 134 cr in Karvy Group money laundering case

According to an official statement, the ED initiated an investigation on the basis of FIRs registered by the CCS Hyderabad Police

ED raids Rajasthan Congress chief's premises, summons Ashok Gehlot's son

Oppn parties criticise actions weeks before poll

Delhi court to decide on ED charge sheet in case against PFI on Nov 6

A Delhi court will decide on November 6 whether to take cognisance of a supplementary charge sheet filed by the ED against an accused in a money laundering case related to alleged terrorist activities also involving the banned Popular Front of India. Additional Sessions Judge Sachin Gupta, who was scheduled to deicide the report against Syed Mohd Kasim Ibrahim on Thursday, adjourned the matter, noting that the proceedings in the case were already listed before the court on November 6. Ibrahim is currently in judicial custody. On October 20, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed the prosecution complaint (agency's equivalent of a charge sheet) before ASJ Gupta who posted the matter for consideration on October 26. ED's Special Public Prosecutor N K Matta, along with advocate Mohd Faizan Khan, told the court there was sufficient evidence to prosecute the accused in the case. The case relates to alleged laundering of Rs 120 crore over several years. The Popular Front of India (PFI)

ED raids premises of Rajasthan Cong president in exam paper leak case

Turning the heat on the ruling Congress in poll-bound Rajasthan, the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday raided the premises of state Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra in Jaipur and Sikar as part of a money laundering probe into the alleged exam paper leak case and summoned Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's son in a foreign exchange violation case. Besides the premises of Dotasra, a former minister for school education, the agency is also searching the premises of party candidate from Mahua seat in Dausa, Omprakash Hudla, and some others, official sources said. An armed escort of central paramilitary force CRPF accompanied the ED teams. The Congress slammed the Centre over the ED's action against its leaders in Rajasthan and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of taking the help of probe agencies in fighting polls and said people would give the BJP a befitting reply Chief Minister Gehlot said the ED raids are being done everyday in the state "as the BJP does not want that Congre

BJP doesn't want people to get benefits of guarantees: Gehlot on ED raids

Raids by the ED are happening in Rajasthan because the BJP does not want women, farmers and the poor in the state to get the benefit of the guarantees given by the party, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said on Thursday. The allegation came after the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday raided the premises of Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra and party candidate from Mahua assembly seat as part of a money laundering probe into the alleged exam paper leak case in the poll-bound state. The federal probe agency has also summoned Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's son Vaibhav Gehlot for questioning in a case related to alleged contravention of the foreign exchange law. In a post in Hindi on X, the chief minister said, "Date 25/10/23: Congress launches guarantees for women of Rajasthan. Date 26/10/23: ED raid on Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Ji Dotasra. Summon to my son Vaibhav Gehlot to appear before ED." "Now you can understand what I have been saying that ED's raids

ED summons CM Ashok Gehlot's son in a foreign exchange violation case

Vaibhav Gehlot has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate on Friday in Jaipur in relation to a foreign exchange violation case

ED raids Rajasthan PCC president in paper leak case ahead of state polls

Premises of Govind Singh Dotasra and party candidate from the Mahua Assembly seat were raided in a part of a money laundering investigation related to the paper leak case in the state

ED raids several places including TMC minister Jyotipriyo Mallick's house

Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials began an early Thursday morning search at the residence of West Bengal minister Jyotipriyo Mallick in connection with an ongoing probe into the alleged multi-crore ration distribution scam, an officer said. The ED slueths raided two flats belonging to Mallick, who is currently the state Forest minister, at Kolkata's Salt Lake area, supported by a team of central forces, he added. Search operations were also on at eight other flats including the residences of Mallick's former personal assistant while he was the Food minister, he said. "The minister was not there during the raid. He came later and his phone has been taken away. There are eight officers inside. We are also conducting searches at his former personal assistant's residence in Dum Dum and a few other places," the ED officer told PTI. The central probe agency has already arrested one person who allegedly has close links to the ruling Trinamool Congress as well as Mallick, the officer

ED files chargesheet in Mahadev betting case that surfaced in Chhattisgarh

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed its first chargesheet in connection with its money laundering investigation into the Mahadev betting app case that surfaced in Chhattisgarh recently, sources said. The prosecution complaint was filed by the federal probe agency before the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Raipur on Friday, official sources said. The ED has named 14 persons in the prosecution complaint, including alleged main promoters of the Mahadev Book app Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal besides Vikas Chhapariya, Chandrabhushan Verma, Satish Chandrakar, Anil Dammani, Sunil Dammani, Vishal Ahuja, Dheeraj Ahuja, Srijan Associates through Punaram Verma, Shiv Kumar Verma, Punaram Verma Shiv Kumar Verma, Yashoda Verma, Pawan Nathani, they said. Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal had denied any wrongdoing. The operative part of the chargesheet runs into 197 pages, while the annexures add about 8,800 more pages. The projected proceeds of the alleged c

ED files charge sheet against man named in Panama Papers for foreign assets

The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday said it has filed a charge sheet under the anti-money laundering law against a man, whose name figured in the Panama Paper leaks, for alleged possession of undisclosed assets abroad. The prosecution complaint against Sanjay Vijay Shinde, his wife Aparna and a company named Venus Bay Offshore Ltd. was filed before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Bhopal on October 18 and the court took cognisance of the charge sheet on Friday, the federal agency said. The money laundering case against Shinde stems from an Income Tax Department charge sheet that was filed earlier under the anti-black money law. The I-T department acted against the man as part of its probe into the Panama Papers leak. Dubbed 'Panama Papers', an investigation of a stockpile of records from Panamanian legal firm Mossack Fonseca by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in 2016 had named several world leaders an

Kerala LIFE mission case: ED attaches assets worth over Rs 5 crore

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said it has attached assets worth more than Rs 5 crore in connection with its ongoing money laundering probe into an alleged scam in Kerala's LIFE Mission, which was meant for providing homes to flood victims. The properties attached include residential premises in the name of Santhosh Eappen and immovable property and bank balances in the name of Swapna Suresh, the federal agency said in a statement. The total value of these properties is Rs 5.38 crore, it said. It alleged that a conspiracy was hatched by Sarith PS and Swapna Suresh, former employees of the UAE consulate, with "active support" of M Sivasankar, a former principal secretary to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, and Sandeep Nair and others. This was done, the ED said, to "generate commission as bribe" from the funds donated by Red Crescent by awarding the LIFE Mission project to Unitac Builders and Developers and Sane Ventures LLP run by Santhosh Eappen "without following ..

PMLA case: We will go into 'legal issues' only, says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court, which has decided to examine whether its 2022 judgement upholding the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) powers to arrest and attach property involved in money laundering under PMLA required any reconsideration, said on Friday it will deal only with the "legal issues" and not go into individual matters. The three-judge special bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said this while hearing an interlocutory application filed by a man who has been summoned by the ED in a money laundering case related to alleged extortion of illegal levy on coal transportation and production of steel and iron pellets etc. "When the matter was taken up (on October 18), we had said we will go into the legal issues only and not individual issues," Justice Kaul said. The bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Bela M Trivedi, said "We are dealing with larger issue which is apparent from the order passed on October 18. It is not possible for the special bench to deal with all ...

ED power to issue summons under Section 50 PMLA does not include arrest

To be sure, the power to arrest is conspicuously absent in Section 50 of the PMLA, said Delhi High Court