Tag: laundering

ED questions Rahul Gandhi’s aide in money laundering case against TMC’s Saket Gokhale

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New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has questioned and recorded the statement of Alankar Sawai, a close aide of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, in a money laundering case in which TMC spokesperson Saket Gokhale was recently arrested by the agency in Gujarat, officials said.
Sawai was questioned and also confronted with Gokhale in Ahmedabad over three days earlier this week, they said.
A former banker, Sawai is considered to be a close aide of Gandhi, a former Congress president, and is stated to be heading his research team.
The federal probe agency summoned Sawai after it arrested 35-year-old Gokhale on January 25 while he was in the Gujarat Police’s custody in connection with alleged financial irregularities in raising funds through a crowd funding platform.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), while seeking Gokhale’s remand on that day, had informed a Ahmedabad court that when he was asked about Rs 23.54 lakh deposited in his bank account in cash over a year, Gokhale had told the agency that “this amount was given in cash by Alankar Sawai of the India National Congress for social media work and other consultancy”.
On being asked as to why Sawai had paid him in cash, Gokhale stated that only Sawai can answer this question, the ED told the court in its remand paper.
“Further, on being asked regarding any written agreement with Alankar Sawai in respect of social media work he stated that it was only verbal agreement with Alankar Sawai,” the agency said.
The ED alleged that these cash deposits were recieved by Gokhale when he was a member of the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

Sawai is understood to have been questioned about these instances and his statement was recorded under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Official sources said the questioning and confronting of the two has not helped them unearth the fund trail as stated by Gokhale even as Sawai purportedly denied making any cash payments.
The money laundering case against Gokhale stems from a Gujarat Police FIR.
The state police arrested Gokhale from Delhi in December last year in a case of alleged misuse of money he had collected through crowd-funding.
The ED had informed the Ahmedabad court that “huge amount of money collected through crowd funding (by Gokhale) has been splurged on speculative share trading, wining and dining and other personal expenses which appear to be extravagant in nature.”
Gokhale, however, had denied that he misused these funds.
The agency may question more people linked in the case.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 4, 2023
SC reserves verdict on Rana Ayyub’s plea against summons in money laundering case

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on a plea of journalist Rana Ayyub challenging the summons issued by a special court in Ghaziabad in the money laundering case.
A bench of Justice V Ramasubramanian and Justice J B Pardiwala said it will pass orders on the plea.
During the hearing, advocate Vrinda Grover, appearing for Ayyub, submitted, “Can her personal liberty be deprived by a procedure not authorised by law?”
She submitted that the Ghaziabad special court has no jurisdiction to try the offence as the alleged act is said to have been committed in Mumbai.
Grover said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached the journalist’s personal bank account in a bank at Navi Mumbai in which around Rs 1 crore was lying.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the ED, said the prosecution complaint has been filed in the Ghaziabad court by the agency as part of the cause of action had arisen in Uttar Pradesh, where a lot of people, including from Ghaziabad, contributed to her crowdfunding campaign.
He said the money laundering offence is not an independent offence and is always connected to a scheduled offence for which an FIR was lodged in Indirapuram police station of Ghaziabad.
Mehta said arguments advanced by the other side is that if a person chose to launder money in Singapore or Thiruvananthapuram, the agency has to go there and lodge a case.

“Sorry, this is not the scheme,” he said, adding that Ayyub raised funds through online platform Ketto’ in the name of helping slum dwellers, COVID-19 patients and people of Assam which resulted in the collection of Rs 1 crore, out of which Rs 50 lakh fixed deposit was done in a personal account.
He said, “Money was shown by fake bills, groceries, among others, and was used for personal luxury items and consumption.”
On January 25, the top court had asked a special court in Ghaziabad to adjourn the proceedings in the money laundering case against Ayyub scheduled for hearing on January 27 to a date after January 31.
In her writ petition, Ayyub has sought quashing of the proceedings initiated by the ED in Ghaziabad citing lack of jurisdiction as the alleged offence of money laundering occurred in Mumbai.
On November 29 last year, the special PMLA court in Ghaziabad took cognisance of the prosecution complaint (charge sheet) filed by the ED and summoned Ayyub.
The ED charge sheet was filed under section 45 read with section 44 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
“I have perused the above mentioned prosecution complaint and have also gone through the prosecution papers as well as documents, including statements.
“From the perusal of the entire record, there is sufficient evidence as to a prima facie case for taking cognisance against Ms Rana Ayyub with regard to commission of offence,” the special court judge had said.
The special court had said Ayyub’s alleged crime involves taking money illegally from the general public in the name of charity via Ketto — an online crowdfunding platform — in three campaigns, without any approval, raising a huge sum in the bank account of her sister and father, and transferring it into her own bank account which was not used for the intended purpose.
On October 12 last year, the ED had filed a charge sheet against Ayyub, accusing her of cheating the public and using Rs 2.69 crore she got in charity for creating personal assets, and also violating the foreign contribution law.
“Rana Ayyub launched three fundraiser charity campaigns on the ‘Ketto’ platform, starting from April 2020 and collected funds totalling Rs 2,69,44,680,” the ED had said in a statement.
The campaigns, it had claimed, were meant to raise funds for slum dwellers and farmers, relief work for Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra, and help Ayyub and her team help those impacted by coronavirus in India.
“Ayyub utilised these funds to create a fixed deposit of Rs 50 lakh for herself and also transferred Rs 50 lakh to a new bank account. Investigations found that only about Rs 29 lakh was used for relief work,” the ED had claimed.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 31, 2023
ED arrests TMC spokesperson Saket Gokhale in money laundering case

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New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has arrested Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson Saket Gokhale in a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in a crowd funding initiative, official sources said Wednesday.
Gokhale was taken into custody under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Ahemdabad where he is lodged in judicial custody in a Gujarat Police case.
He will be produced by the federal agency before a local court there seeking his remand, they said.
The Gujarat Police arrested Gokhale from Delhi December 29 in its case of alleged misuse of money he had collected through crowd-funding.
Earlier in December, the Gujarat Police arrested him twice for allegedly spreading fake news regarding the cost incurred on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Morbi town following a bridge collapse tragedy.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 25, 2023
SC to hear plea of journalist Rana Ayyub against summons in money laundering case

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday the petition of journalist Rana Ayyub challenging the summons issued to her by a special PMLA court in Ghaziabad in a money laundering case lodged against her by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
According to the list of business uploaded on the apex court website, Ayyub’s petition is listed before a bench of Justices V Ramasubramanian and JB Pardiwala.
Earlier on January 17, a CJI DY Chandrachud-led bench had agreed to consider listing the plea of the journalist for urgent hearing after taking note of the submissions of advocate Vrinda Grover who appeared for Ayyub.
Grover had said a summons was issued by the special court in Ghaziabad against Ayyub for January 27 and therefore the matter be listed urgently.
In her writ petition, Ayyub has sought quashing of the proceedings initiated by the ED in Ghaziabad citing lack of jurisdiction as the alleged offence of money laundering occurred in Mumbai.
On November 29 last year, the special PMLA court in Ghaziabad had taken cognizance of the prosecution complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate and summoned Ayyub.
It had noted that the prosecution complaint (ED version of charge sheet) under section 45 read with section 44 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 for the commission of offences of money laundering has been filed by Sanjeet Kumar Sahu, Assistant Director of Enforcement, Delhi.
“I have perused the above mentioned prosecution complaint and have also gone through the prosecution papers as well as documents including statements. From the perusal of the entire record there is sufficient evidence as to a prima facie case for taking cognizance against Ms. Rana Ayyub with regard to commission of offence “, the special court judge said.

The special court has noted the alleged offence pertains to obtaining illegally money from the general public in the name of charity via ‘Ketto’ platform (an online crowdfunding platform) in three campaigns without any kind of approval, raising huge amounts in the bank account of her sister and father and later transferring the same to her own bank account which was not used for the intended purpose.
She is accused of acquiring proceeds of crime and creating assets for herself.
On October 12 last year, the ED had filed a charge sheet against Ayyub, accusing her of cheating the public and utilising charity funds worth Rs 2.69 crore for creating her personal assets, and also violating the foreign contribution law.
“Rana Ayyub launched three fundraiser charity campaigns on the ‘Ketto platform’ starting from April 2020 and collected funds totalling Rs 2,69,44,680,” the ED had said in a statement.
The campaigns, it had said, were meant to raise funds for slum dwellers and farmers, relief work for Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra, and help Ayyub and her team to help those impacted by COVID-19 in India.
The probe found that the funds raised on the online platforms were received in the accounts of Ayyub’s father and sister and subsequently transferred to her personal accounts, the ED alleged.
“Ayyub utilised these funds to create a fixed deposit of Rs 50 lakh for herself and also transferred Rs 50 lakh to a new bank account. Investigations found that only about Rs 29 lakh was used for relief work,” it had claimed.
“In order to claim more expenses towards relief work, fake bills were submitted by Ayyub and subsequently, bank balances in the accounts of Ayyub amounting to Rs 1,77,27,704 (including FD of Rs 50 Lakh) were attached under the PMLA vide a provisional attachment order dated February 4, 2022,” it had said.
The ED had initiated money laundering investigation on the basis of an FIR registered on September 7, 2021 by the Indirapuram Police Station of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh under various sections of the IPC, Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 and Black Money Act against Ayyub.
It was also alleged that Ayyub received foreign contributions without registration under FCRA.
On August 17 last year, the Delhi High Court had restrained the ED from proceeding further with the provisional attachment of funds in connection with the alleged money laundering probe against her.
On April 4 last year, the Delhi High Court had allowed Ayyub to travel abroad while questioning the ED over a Look Out Circular (LOC) issued against her barring her from travelling abroad.
Ayyub was stopped by the ED from taking a flight to London from the Mumbai airport in March as the agency had then opened a ‘Look out Circular’ against her.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 22, 2023