Actor Sachiin Joshi’s ED custody extended

MUMBAI: The custodial interrogation of actor and businessman Sachiin Joshi was extended on Thursday by a special court till 22 February after he was produced in the afternoon before it as his four-day custody with the agency ended.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) sought his custody for another seven days. It told the court in its remand application seeking his custody that during the recording of his statement, he has provided his mobile phone on record. On its scrutiny, the ED said it found that he has deleted his recent activity, which raises a suspicion that some incriminating contents may have been deleted by him. The phone has now been impounded and its data is being extracted. The ED told the court that further custody is necessary so that Joshi can be confronted with the data.

Further, it informed the court that it had called for particulars from Joshi’s office regarding the Rs 37 crore received by him in his personal accounts from various Omkar Group’s companies for services he claimed to have rendered to the group. These invoices, the agency said, do not tally with the amount received. It told the court it also requires his further custody as it has called for information from his office on utilisation of the said Rs 37 crore and their utilisation is expected to reveal the real nature of the transactions.

Appearing for Joshi, his lawyer Subhash Jadhav opposed his extended custody with the ED. The 37-year-old was arrested on 14 February on allegations of conniving in laundering money borrowed by the Omkar Group from Yes Bank. The group allegedly misappropriated the funds and did not use it for the Slum Redevelopment Projects they were secured for.