Director of Hong Kong firm held in ₹1,478-cr money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate has arrested a director of a Hong Kong-based firm on charges of money laundering to the tune of ₹1,478 crore.

The ED in a statement said the director of International Rising Limited, Kritika Dahal, 35, was allegedly using her company in Hong Kong to launder money in the garb of exporting diamonds and gold.

She was arrested on February 25 under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). It said Dahal was first “intercepted” at the airport and was placed under arrest after questioning.

The agency alleged that out of ₹1478 crore, around ₹92 crore were laundered in old demonetised currency post note ban.

More than 100 accounts of different shell companies were involved in the operation and layering of these funds was done through more than 500 accounts.

“Ultimately, the funds from all companies or firms were credited through Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) to a Mumbai-based firm, Rajeshwar Exports, which sent the money to Hong Kong, in guise of payment of import of overvalued consignments of total 355 Bills of Entries,” said an ED statement.

The ED found $21.22 crore (around ₹1421 crore) were taken out from the account of Rajeshwar Exports over the last one year.

Out of this, International Rising Limited received around ₹990 crore for supply of 220 consignments of diamonds and gold, which appeared to be overvalued by at least 10 times.

Investigators suspect that Dahal was being used a front by a diamond trader Ritesh Jain.

Two brothers with suspected Islamic State links, who were arrested for allegedly hatching plans to conduct “lone-wolf” attacks in Gujarat were sent to 12-day police custody by a court here on Monday.

Waseem Ramodiya and his brother Naeem were arrested from Rajkot and Bhavnagar on Sunday morning. They were said to be in contact with their IS handlers through social media and were reportedly plotting to attack popular Chotila temple and other places in the state.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad, which had sought 14-day custody of the brothers, said it wanted to find out if there is any sleeper cell of the IS in the state. The investigators also wanted to ascertain if the siblings had any attempts to trigger blasts in the past and indulged in other subversive activities. Judicial magistrate RA Singh, however, granted 12-day custody till March 10.