The agency said that the chartered accountant who is being probed in the same fertiliser “scam” case was produced before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Tuesday and it sent him to 10 days of ED custody.
PTI
July 13, 2021 / 10:37 PM IST
Enforcement Directorate
The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday said it has arrested a Delhi-based chartered accountant (CA) on money laundering charges linked to alleged transfer of about Rs 40 crore hawala funds from Dubai to India.
Alok Kumar Agarwal, chairman of Alankit Group, was arrested on Monday and the federal agency claimed in a statement issued here that arrested RJD MP A D Singh “received a part” of this alleged illegal cross-border money transfer.
The Rajya Sabha member was arrested last month by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here in connection with a money laundering investigation linked to an alleged fertiliser scam and payment of kickbacks to the tune of Rs 685 crore.
The agency said that the chartered accountant who is being probed in the same fertiliser “scam” case was produced before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Tuesday and it sent him to 10 days of ED custody.
The ED said Agarwal”s Alankit Group is engaged in providing services like equity broking and commodity broking, depository participant, GST Suvidha centres, PAN centres and TIN facilitation centres.
“The allegations against the accused include routing of proceeds of crime involved in the impugned investigations through his group entities based in India and Dubai,” it said.
“He (Agarwal) facilitated cross border transfer of proceeds of crime (approximately Rs 40 crore identified so far) to India from Dubai for a monetary consideration,” the agency alleged.
Probe is underway to identify all the other beneficiaries of the illegal money exchange module or hawala being operated by him, it said.
“Investigations done so far have revealed that a part of the proceeds of crime has been received by Rajya Sabha MP A D Singh through this module,” the ED claimed.
The 61-year-old MP was sent to the Upper House of Parliament by Lalu Prasad”s party Rashtriya Janta Dal.
The case relates to alleged illegal commissions worth over Rs 685 crore allegedly given to the NRI sons of IFFCO Managing Director and CEO U S Awasthi and Indian Potash Ltd (IPL) Managing Director P S Gahlaut as well as others by overseas suppliers from 2007-14.
