ED conducts searches in city to investigate fake artwork cartel

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has conducted searches at six locations in the city as part of its money laundering probe against art dealer Rajesh Rajpal and others, booked for duping Puneet Bhatia, India head of the Us-based private equity firm TPG Capital, of ₹17.90 crore by selling him fake paintings by renowned Indian artists such as Jamini Roy, MF Husain, among others.

The agency said it has seized digital devices and documents, which revealed the operations of a cartel involved in the trading of fake artworks, generation of fake authenticity and provenance certificates, transfer of money through cash and involvement of other prominent art galleries and individuals.

ED has initiated the money laundering probe based on an FIR registered by the Tardeo police in Mumbai under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, as reported by HT on December 20, last year.

ED sources said that Bhatia had alleged that Rajpal, and one Vishwang Desai, had conspired to dupe him by defrauding him of ₹17.90 crore by selling fake paintings to him, along with the forged and fabricated certificates of the said paintings.

During the search proceedings carried out on Wednesday, the ED teams unearthed a cartel allegedly involving “a prominent art gallery in south Mumbai, a corporate lawyer and bullion traders, wherein fake artworks of original paintings were passed off as genuine art pieces”, an ED source said.

“This included the artworks of Jamini Roy, MF Husain, FN Souza, Jahangir Sabavala, SH Raza, NS Bendre, and Ram Kumar, among others,” the ED source said.

ED’S probe found that the cartel allegedly operated with the help of people claiming fake origins with royal kingdoms, antique art collectors and smalltime artists who created these fake replicas and projected them to be authentic with the help of fake certificates of authenticity, provenance and affidavit of ownership, agency sources said.

ED’S investigation into the money trail revealed that amounts/proceeds received were sent by domestic illegal hawala routes to the members of the cartel in the form of commission or free/discounted artwork, the sources said.