ED FILES MONEY LAUNDERING CASE AGAINST IL&FS OFFICIALS

MUMBAI:THE Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday registered a money laundering case against the top officials of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS), including its former chairman Ravi Parthasarathy.

Raids were conducted at six locations in the city, along with those in Delhi and Gurugram. The case was registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 that deals with the profit of crimes, emanating from the predicate offences. In this case, the predicate offence has been registered by Delhi Economic Offence Wing on the basis of a complaint filed for alleged cheating and forgery on part of IL&FS group and its managing committee from 2010 to 2018.

“It was alleged in the FIR that the group has taken investments on the basis of false projections. It has been involved in forging the account books and providing loans to subsidiaries and related companies, thereby layering and routing the funds,” the ED statement read, following the searches. The agency stated that searches under PMLA were conducted at the residential premises of key officials of erstwhile management of IL&FS group. During the search proceedings, foreign currencies amounting to about ₹6 lakh, various property documents, and incriminating documents/records/media have been recovered and seized.

Following the crises last year, the government superseded the board of IL&FS and unveiled an investigation into the management by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office. The troubles at IL&FS had been intensifying since July last year, when Parthasarathy stepped down, citing health reasons.