Misa Bharti’s farmhouse a money laundering asset: PMLA authority

A designated PMLA authority has held that a Delhi farmhouse, attached by the ED in the name of RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s daughter Misa Bharti and her husband, is “involved” in money laundering and ordered that the attachment of the asset should continue.

The central probe agency had provisionally attached the immovable asset, located on a 12-bigha land in south Delhi’s Bijwasan area, in September last year under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

“Considering the material (filed) in the original complaint (by the Enforcement Directorate)... I find the property provisionally attached is involved in money laundering.

“I, therefore, hereby confirm the attachment of the property... and order that the said attachment shall continue during the pendency of the proceedings related to the offence under the PMLA before a court and become final after an order of confiscation is passed by the special court,” the recent order issued by Member (Law) of the Adjudicating Authority of the PMLA, Tushar V Shah, said.

The ED has now seized the property, agency sources said. The property belongs to Misa Bharti and husband Shailesh Kumar and is “held in the name of Ms Mishail Packers and Printers Pvt Ltd”, the central probe agency had said.

The agency had said that its investigation found that the farmhouse was purchased “using Rs 1.2 crore involved in money laundering in the year 2008-09.”

The ED is probing Misa Bharti, an RJD MP in the Rajya Sabha, and her husband as part of its criminal probe in a Rs 8,000 crore alleged money laundering case involving shell or bogus companies and two Delhi-based alleged entry operators Surendra Jain and Virendra Jain.

Jains were brothers and had been arrested by the ED in this case in the past.