Kundra shows up at ED again

Celebrity entrepreneur Raj Kundra, husband of Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty, showed up briefly at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office on Friday in connection with the on-going money laundering investigation against the late drug kingpin, Iqbal Mirchi.

ED sources said that Kundra had a short meeting with the investigation team, which had called him for certain documentary clarifications connected to the probe. Prior to this, Kundra had been grilled for about 10 hours by the agency on October 30.

The agency is probing Kundra for a purported land deal in Santacruz that involved Ranjit Singh Bindra, a controversial Bandra-based property broker, who had been arrested earlier this month for his alleged links with Mirchi.

Kundra had been quizzed about the investments made and interest free loans issued by RKW Developers, a realty firm promoted by Dheeraj Dewan, to Essential Hospitality Limited— where Shilpa Shetty was one of the directors, in 2016-17. Incidentally, Bindra is a director in

RKW Developers as well as Bastian Hospitality, a firm floated by Kundra. Bindra is presently in judicial custody.

Kundra had later clarified that he had business dealing with Dheeraj Diwan as well as Ranjit Singh Bindra, and not with any underworld element ‘at any point of time.’

On Tuesday, the ED had questioned Dheeraj (Baba) Diwan for over 6 hours, while his brother Kapil Dewan was quizzed earlier. Kapil is the chairman of DHFL while Dheeraj is a non-executive director in the firm.

The ED claims that DHFL had allotted loans to a realty firm to purchase three of Mirchi’s properties in Worli and the money was later diverted to bogus firms in Dubai owned by the late drug kingpin.