Cash for votes case: The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday arrested one person in connection with the alleged cash for votes case. The person was trying to flee to Dubai when he was apprehended by the immigration authorities at Ahmedabad Airport.
A look out circular was issued against Nagani Akram Mohammad Shafi following which he was arrested while trying to flee from the country.
The case was initially registered on November 7 by the Malegaon Chawani Police Station, Nashik, regarding unknown deposit of huge amounts of over Rs 100 crores in 14 accounts, newly opened with Nashik Merchant Co-operative Bank (NAMCO Bank), Malegaon.
The development comes after the ED, on November 14, raided multiple locations in the poll-bound Maharashtra and Gujarat as part of a money laundering probe against a Malegaon-based trader who was accused of misusing bank accounts of people to undertake transactions worth over Rs 100 crore.
The central agency searched 23 premises in Nashik, Malegaon, and Mumbai in Maharashtra in addition to Ahmedabad and Surat in Gujarat under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) provisions.
The alleged irregularities were brought to light after the Malegaon Police filed an FIR against a local trader named Siraj Ahmed Harun Meman, who owns a tea and cold drinks agency. The complainant had alleged that his bank account was allegedly misused for illegal transactions. This sparked speculation that the accounts would have been misused for laundering election funds, news agency PTI reported.
It was alleged that the prime accused used KYC details of nearly a dozen people to open bank account in Nashik Merchant Cooperative Bank. He had told these people that he wanted to begin a corn business for which he needed to take money from farmers.
The accused also allegedly opened two other accounts by taking KYC documents from his friends. All the 14 accounts were opened between September and October, PTI reported citing sources.
Following this, the ED recovered debit and credit entries worth over Rs 100 crore each which further led the agency to conduct searches to get more evidence. The ED is scanning a series of over 2,500 transactions across 170 bank branches in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Odisha, and West Bengal. It is being suspected that the funds were either withdrawn or deposited from these accounts.
The angle of misusing the accounts for malpractices in the elections is also being probed. BJP leader Kirit Somaiya had flagged this case in Malegaon and called it a an instance of "vote jihad".