'Cash-For-Votes' Case: Accused Arrested From Gujarat Remanded To ED Custody Till Nov 29
'Mastermind' Nagani Akram Mohammad Shafi was detained on Wednesday by the immigration authorities at the Ahmedabad airport in Gujarat on the basis of a lookout circular (LOC) issued by the ED.
A special court here on Friday remanded the man, arrested in a Maharashtra cash-for-votes case-linked money laundering investigation, to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody till November 29.
The probe agency told the court that the accused, Nagani Akram Mohammad Shafi, was the "mastermind" who opened 14 bank accounts in a cooperative bank and transferred money to the tune of Rs 100 crore to the accounts of alleged shell companies with the help of hawala transactions.
He was detained on Wednesday by the immigration authorities at the Ahmedabad airport in neighbouring Gujarat on the basis of a lookout circular (LOC) issued by the ED. According to officials, he was trying to flee to Dubai. He was later arrested by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Shafi was produced before a special PMLA court judge, A C Daga, who remanded him in the custody of the probe agency.
The court, in its remand order, noted that a "prima-facie case is made out showing his (Shafi's) involvement in the crime".
Considering the magnitude of the offence, in case the custody of accused is not granted to the ED, then the probe agency "will not be in a position to find out end user of the funds, will not be in a position to recover the funds and will not be in a position to reach the co-accused", the court said.
The central agency conducted searches in poll-bound Maharashtra and Gujarat last week in the case registered against a Malegaon-based trader, Siraj Ahmed Harun Meman, who allegedly misused bank accounts of various people to carry out transactions worth more than Rs 100 crore.
BJP leader Kirit Somaiya had flagged these transactions, calling it a case of "vote jihad scam" wherein cash was allegedly given to voters in exchange for their votes in the assembly polls. Polling for the 288-member Maharashtra assembly was held on Wednesday.
The money laundering case stems from a November 7 Malegaon Police FIR filed against Meman, who runs a tea and cold drinks agency, and some of his associates.
The complainant in the case is Malegaon-based man named Jayes Lotan Misal, whose bank account was allegedly misused for illegal transactions, triggering speculation that the accounts were used for routing election funds.
The ED told the court that Shafi was the mastermind behind opening of the 14 bank accounts with Meman in the Nasik Merchants Cooperative Bank with the help of Siraj Ahmad.
Further, with the help of hawala transactions, he transferred the amount to shell companies and then to various bank accounts, the probe agency said.
The ED said that the probe conducted so far has revealed that scrutiny of documents pertaining to the 14 accounts shows that the majority of the credits amounting to more than Rs 118.40 crore were transferred from the accounts of around 200 firms within a span of one to two months only.
Similarly, the amounts so credited in these accounts were immediately transferred to several accounts maintained in the name of various entities, it said.
The probe agency claimed that Shafi is involved in the criminal act of money laundering and he has been found to be indulged directly in acquisition and possession of proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 8.66 crore identified so far.
It added that the accused has knowingly assisted in layering and laundering of the same.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)
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