ED summons Misa Bharti in ₹8,000-crore PMLA case
NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued summons to RJD MP Misa Bharti after it recently conducted raids against her and her husband in connection with a Rs 8,000 crore money laundering case. Bharti, daughter of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, has been asked to depose before the investigating officer of the case here on Tuesday, officials said on Monday.
She has also been asked to bring along certain documents, including those related to her personal finances, they said.
Her husband Shailesh Kumar is also expected to be summoned. On July 8, the central probe agency had raided three Delhi premises of Bharti, Shailesh and a firm allegedly linked to them in the money laundering probe involving shell companies. The ED action came a day after the CBI had raided multiple premises of the RJD chief and his family in a corruption case.
Three farmhouses of Bharti, her husband and one registered in the name of Mishail Printers and Packers Private Limited were searched by the ED.
The agency now wants to question Bharti and confront her with certain documents seized by it.
The latest summons and searches are connected to the Rs 8,000 crore money laundering probe being conducted by the ED against two Delhi-based businessmen brothers - Surendra Kumar Jain and Viren- dra Jain - and others who are alleged to have laundered several crore of rupees using over 90 shell companies. The Jain brothers were arrested by the Enforcement Directorate earlier under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
One of the firms that the brother-duo dealt with was Mishail Printers and Packers Private Limited. Bharti and her husband were allegedly directors of this firm in the past.
The agency said it was detected that 1,20,000 shares of Mishail Printers and Packers private limited were bought during 2007-08 at a rate of Rs 100 per share by four shell companies -- Shalini Holdings Limited, Ad-fin Capital Services (India) Pvt. Ltd, Mani Mala Delhi Properties Pvt. Ltd, and Diamond Vinimay Pvt. Ltd.
These 1,20,000 shares, it said, were bought back by Bharti at Rs 10 per unit.
The ED had also arrested Rajesh Agarwal, a Chartered Accountant allegedly linked to Bharti, who provided accommodation entries (black funds) of about Rs 60 lakh to Mishail Printers and Packers Private Limited.
The searches, they said, are part of investigations to unravel these links which allegedly routed black money using the shell companies in question.
Shell companies are firms set up with nominal paid up capital, high reserves and surplus on account of receipt of high share premium, investment in unlisted companies and no dividend income or high amount of cash-in-hand.
The ED is the third central body probing the alleged financial irregularities by the Lalu Prasad family after the CBI and the Income Tax department which recently attached benami assets worth about Rs 180 crore (market value) in its investigation against them. IMPHAL: Five militants including a woman belonging to different separatist outfits were arrested from various places in the Imphal valley, a senior police officer said on Monday. A police team along with women personnel arrested “an active member” of the proscribed outfit United National Liberation Front (UNLF) from her residence at Warukok Awang Leikai in Thoubal district on Saturday, the officer said. She has been identified as 29-year-old Mutum Sumila Chanu.
In another development, police arrested a member of the banned terrorist outfit Kangleipak Communist Party (Lamyanba Khuman) and seized one .32 mm pistol with magazine, five live rounds and one Chinese-made hand grenade from his possession on Saturday.
Based on the disclosure of the arrested militant identified as Thoudam Premkumar Singh (30), one of his associate known as Md Manir Khan was also arrested from his residence at Oinam Sawombung.
Acting on a tip-off, police arrested two militants belonging to Kuki National Front (Indian) on Saturday morning from Langol Games village in Imphal West district.