BackDemonetisation: ED makes third arrest in Axis Bank case
The third accused is a chartered accountantRajeev Kushwahawho has been placed under arrest under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act
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New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday arrested a chartered accountant (CA), third person to be arrested in connection with its money laundering probe of alleged illegal conversion of demonetised notes in connivance with Axis Bank officials.
Official sources identified the CA as Rajeev Kushwaha who has been placed under arrest under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). They said Kushwaha, whom the agency had identified as one of the three “entry operators" involved in the case, was not cooperating with the agency and hence was arrested. He will be produced in a local court for further custody, they said.
The agency, on December 4, had arrested two Axis Bank Managers—working at the Kashmere Gate branch here—in the same case. The enforcement directorate (ED) while explaining the modus operandi of the case, cracked last week, had underlined the role of the CA and his associates.
The cash collected by sale of gold using demonetised notes, it said, was “laundered through banking channels with the help of money launderers who are professionally qualified CAs and managing several dummy/shell companies and finally payments from such shell companies were made through Real-time Gross Settlement (RTGS) to bullion dealers and the physical gold so purchased at market rate of ₹ 31,000 to 32,000 per 10gm was handed over to the persons from whom advances were received."
The agency’s probe till now, after it registered a criminal complaint under the PMLA on 30 November, found that huge moneys were being transferred through RTGS transfers to some shell companies including a case where the director of such a firm was a “petty labourer" living in a slum in Anna Nagar jhuggi camp in the national capital.
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“It was also found that directors of other shell companies were also persons of no means," the ED had said in a statement. The case was first detected by Delhi Police after it intercepted three persons with cash of about Rs3.7 crore in old notes, in front of the said Axis Bank branch last month, and the ED took cognisance of the police FIR to slap money laundering charges against the accused. The Income Tax department too had carried out its action in this case and had surveyed the bank branch and later searched the residential premises of the duo. ED has notified the bank to “stop operations" in 11 accounts even as it has zeroed on a number of jewellers, entry operators and others in this case.
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