ED arrests meat exporter Qureshi
NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested controversial meat exporter Moin Qureshi late Friday night in connection with a money laundering probe against him and others.
Qureshi will be presented in a Delhi court on Saturday.
The billionaire has been questioned multiple times in the past by the agency after it registered two FIRs under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
He had been under probe since 2015 when the ED filed a case against him alleging illegal dealings in foreign exchange and using hawala channels for routing money to London, Dubai and other places.
“He also amassed huge amount of money for influencing deals. The money was obtained in the name of government,” said a statement from ED.
The meat exporter had come under the ED’s radar in 2011 after the income tax began probing him for dodging taxes. Suspected to be one of the biggest tax evaders in India, Qureshi allegedly has close ties to a former CBI director. His proximity to several high profile leaders of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has also emerged during the investigation.
Investigation by the tax department show that Qureshi acted as a middleman for obtaining favours from public servants through bribery and in return for huge sums of money.
As part of his operations in Delhi’s corridors of power, Qureshi used Delhi-based Hawala channels to transfer the bribe money to counties such as France, UK, Dubai and Switzerland and other countries.
After humble beginnings in Uttar Pradesh with a slaughterhouse, Qureshi acquired several businesses in the 1990s and established his company AMQ Agri which is one of the largest meat exporters in the country.
The Enforcement Directorate said that during the course of investigation certain facts have emerged that constitute omission and commission of certain acts on the part of certain public servants holding high positions in public office in collusion with Qureshi whereby huge amount of illegal money transaction was carried out. The agency also said that the records collected from the Income Tax department -- BBM (Blackberry Messenger) message has revealed Qureshi took huge amount of money from different persons for obtaining “undue favours from public servants” after exercising his personal influence.
“BBM messages exchanged between Qureshi and the accused involved in other criminal cases and also the persons who wanted to seek undue favours from the other investigating agencies of government by getting them off the hook,” the ED said. “The analysis of BBM messages retrieved from cellphones of Qureshi and his associates revealed the Hawala operators were also used to transfer bribe money belonging to government officials to different locations like Paris (France) and the UK,” the agency said.