Money Laundering Case

Sanjay Bhandari, a consultant in the defence sector wanted in India on alleged tax evasion and money laundering charges, began an appeal in the High Court in London on Tuesday against his extradition order. The 62-year-old businessman had won permission to appeal against a November 2022 Westminster Magistrates' Court ruling clearing his extradition earlier this year. His lawyers began making their arguments in the case, which is listed for a three-day hearing this week with the judgment expected in the new year. Lord Justice Timothy Holroyde and Justice Karen Steyn began hearing representations from barristers James Stansfeld and Edward Fitzgerald at the Royal Courts of Justice on three main grounds of appeal whether the bar for criminality had been met in the English jurisdiction, whether a prima facie case had been made and whether the accused faces a risk of violence in an Indian prison. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), appearing on behalf of the Indian authorities, will ..

The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to advance the hearing on a petition by AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal challenging a trial court's order taking cognisance of a chargesheet filed against him in a money laundering case. Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri said, "matter will be heard on the same date (December 20). I have a lot on the board to hear." Kejriwal had sought preponement of the date of hearing on his petition from December 20. After the court declined to change the date, Kejriwal's counsel pleaded that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) be directed to a supply copy of its reply to the petition in advance. "Whatever you file, give it to them also," the court told the ED's lawyer. On November 21, the high court refused to stay at that moment the trial court proceedings against Kejriwal in the money laundering case. The high court had issued notice and sought response of the ED on the plea by the former Delhi chief minister. Kejriwal sought setting aside of the trial court order and a

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday raided the premises of businessman Raj Kundra, the husband of actor Shilpa Shetty, and some others as part of a money laundering case linked to alleged distribution of pornographic and adult movies, official sources said. Around 15 locations in Mumbai and some cities in Uttar Pradesh are being searched, including the home and office of 49-year-old Kundra and some other persons, the sources said. The agency is understood to be questioning Kundra at one of these premises. This money laundering case of May, 2022 stems from at least two Mumbai police FIRs and chargesheets filed against Kundra and others. The businessman and some others were arrested in the case by the police and later granted bail. This is the second money laundering case against Kundra. Early this year, the ED had attached assets worth Rs 98 crore of Kundra and Shetty in a crypto currency case. The couple, however, obtained relief from the Bombay High Court against this ED attach

An Enforcement Directorate team undertaking searches in a cyber fraud linked money laundering case was allegedly attacked here on Thursday, officials said. The agency has registered a police FIR about the incident that took place at a farmhouse that was raided by ED officials in the Bijwasan area of the national capital that falls under the Kapashera police station in southwest Delhi. An Enforcement Officer (EO) suffered minor injuries during the attack. He is continuing with the searches after he was given first aid, officials said. The probe pertains to a case against the PYYPL app. The alleged accused in the case, including Ashok Sharma and his brother, allegedly attacked the ED team. The situation is under control and searches are going on, the sources said. The search operations, according to sources, has been launched after the ED got inputs from the I4C and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) about cyber crimes like phishing, QR code cheating, part time job fraud leading

Earlier in August, the Supreme Court had questioned the 'quality of prosecution and evidence' garnered in cases related to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, by the Directorate of Enforcement

The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the ED over the low rate of convictions in money laundering cases, wondering for how long former West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee, arrested over alleged irregularities in academic staff recruitment in the state, could be kept in jail. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan said Chatterjee has been incarcerated for over two years and the trial in the case was yet to commence. "What will happen if we don't grant bail? Trial is yet to commence, there are 183 witnesses in the cases. Trial will take time...How long can we keep him? That is the question. Here is a case where more than two years have gone. How to strike balance in such case?" the bench asked Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, representing ED. The top court remarked it also couldn't ignore that the allegations against the former minister were serious in nature and asked, "Mr Raju, if ultimately he is not convicted, what will happen? Waiting for 2.5-3 years is not

The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday conducted fresh searches against Chennai-based 'lottery king' Santiago Martin, the single biggest donor to political parties with over Rs 1,300 crore in electoral bonds, as part of a money laundering investigation, official sources said. The action comes after the Madras High Court recently allowed the ED to proceed against Martin as the Tamil Nadu Police had decided to close the predicate or primary FIR against him and a few others and a lower court accepted this police plea. Sources said multiple premises linked to Martin were being searched on Thursday in Chennai and some other places. The federal agency last year attached assets worth about Rs 457 crore in a case against Martin linked to an alleged loss of over Rs 900 crore to the Sikkim government by fraudulent sale of the state lottery in Kerala. Future Gaming Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. is the master distributor of Sikkim lotteries and the ED has been investigating Martin, known as the .

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted bail to two accused -- Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain -- in a case of alleged money laundering involving senior AAP leader Satyendar Jain. Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri granted regular bail to the duo nearly 10 days after the former Delhi minister was granted relief. A court had granted bail to Satyendar Jain, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in May 2022, citing "delay in trial" and his "long incarceration". The case pertains to allegations against Satyendar Jain of having laundered money through four companies allegedly linked to him. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has claimed that Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain were business associates of the former Delhi minister and abetted the commission of the offence. Vaibhav Jain was represented by senior advocate Siddharth Aggarwal and lawyer Malak Bhatt. Ankush Jain was represented by senior advocate Rebecca John. On September 30, the high court refused to grant default bail to them o

A special court here, while rejecting dismissed policeman Sachin Waze's plea to turn approver in a money laundering case, has said the ED prima facie has sufficient evidence against him and other accused, and that there was no need for his help. By filing such an application, Waze admits to be "privy to the offence allegedly committed by the accused", special court judge A U Kadam hearing cases pertaining to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), stated in the order passed on October 23. The other accused in the case, probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), includes former Maharashtra home minister and NCP (SP) leader Anil Deshmukh. In the plea to turn approver (seek pardon) in the money laundering case, Waze had said that he wants to disclose all the facts pertaining to the case. His application was opposed by the ED, saying that prosecution under the PMLA is against the proceeds of crime with entirely different motives than the other prosecution agency. "Therefore, .

A Delhi court on Friday granted bail to AAP leader and former Delhi cabinet minister Satyendar Jain in a money laundering case, citing "delay in trial" and his "long incarceration". Jain was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on May 30, 2022, on the charge of laundering money through four companies allegedly linked to him. He is currently in judicial custody. "Considering the delay in trial and long incarceration of 18 months, and the fact that trail will take long to start, let alone conclude, accused is favourably suited for the relief," said Special Judge Vishal Gogne. The judge granted the relief on a bail bond Rs 50,000 with two sureties of like amount. The ED case stems from an FIR lodged against Jain by the Central Bureau of Investigation in 2017 under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to MLA Abbas Ansari in connection with a money laundering case. Abbas Ansari is the son of gangster-politician and former MLA Mukhtar Ansari, who died in jail a few months ago. A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Pankaj Mithal gave the relief to Ansari. The apex court on August 14 had issued notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and sought its reply on the appeal filed by Ansari challenging an order of the Allahabad High Court which rejected his bail. The high court on May 9 had dismissed Ansari's bail plea. Considering the material available on record, including the flow charts which clearly demonstrate the origin of funds and also explains how the funds found their way into the accounts of the accused Ansari, this court finds him not entitled for a bail at this stage, the high court had said. The high court had also mentioned in its order that the money trail links Ansari with the movement of funds to and from the two firms -- M/s

Actor Shilpa Shetty and her businessman husband Raj Kundra have moved the Bombay High Court challenging ED's notice directing them to vacate their house in Mumbai's Juhu area and a farmhouse in Pune in connection with a money-laundering case. The pleas came up for hearing on Wednesday before a division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj Chavan. The court issued notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and posted the matter for hearing on Thursday. Their petitions challenge ED notices dated September 27 issued to Shetty and Kundra directing them to evict their residential premises here and a farmhouse in Pune within ten days in connection with a money-laundering case linked to an alleged Bitcoin fraud. The couple's advocate Prashant Patil said that Shetty and Kundra received the eviction notices only on October 3. He termed the notices arbitrary and illegal and sought them to be quashed. According to the pleas, there is no grave urgency for the petitioners to vac

This case also involves other individuals, including Lava International's former Managing Director Hari Om Rai, Chinese national Guangwen (Andrew Kuang), and chartered accountant Nitin Garg

The Enforcement Directorate on Monday searched multiple locations in Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Gurugram and Delhi in connection with a land "fraud" case against AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjeev Arora and others, official sources said. About 16-17 locations, including the house of the 61-year-old MP at Ludhiana (Punjab) and Gurugram (Haryana), are being searched, they said. Premises linked to real estate businessman Hemant Sood and another person, Chandra Shekhar Agrawal, in Jalandhar are also among the locations being searched. Arora said he doesn't exactly know the reason that warranted the searches. "I am a law abiding citizen, am not sure about the reason for search operation, will cooperate fully with agencies and make sure all their queries are answered," Sanjeev he posted on X. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia posted on X that the raids against their MP, also a businessman, is an attempt to break their party. But AAP members will n

RJD chief and former railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and his sons, Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav, were granted bail on a surety of Rs 1 lakh each

The Supreme Court on Thursday gave bail to Chhattisgarh-based businessman Sunil Dammani, arrested by the ED in August last year in a money laundering case linked to the Mahadev illegal gambling app, and said it was doing so without getting into the merit of the allegations. A bench comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra noted that Dammani has been in custody since August 23, 2023 and set aside the Chhattisgarh High Court order denying him bail. "Without saying anything on merits, we are of the view that the appellant may be released on bail subject to bail conditions. "Appellant is ordered to be released on bail if not required in any other investigation, subject to the condition that he shall mark his presence every 15 days at the ED office in the concerned district. The appellant shall not leave the country without prior permission of the trial court," the bench said. As the hearing commenced, Dammani's counsel, senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, told the court that the ...

The charges against former India captain, and Congress leader, Azharuddin, and other former HCA officials include criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery, and conspiracy

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear on October 3 a bail plea of Chhattisgarh-based businessman Sunil Dammani, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in August last year in a money laundering case linked to the illegal gambling Mahadev app. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra was urged by the counsel for the jailed businessman that the bail plea needed to be heard urgently. "We usually do not skip the board (cases listed for hearing on a given day), but this is a bail plea... We will hear it on Thursday," the CJI said after Damani's lawyer said that his client has been in jail for over 13 months. On August 23 last year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Dammani along with three others for their alleged involvement in the Mahadev app money laundering case. The central probe agency had also conducted searches at the properties of 10 people including Vinod Verma, political advisor to former Chhattisgarh ch

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday raided multiple premises linked to Telangana revenue minister P Srinivasa Reddy and some others as part of a money laundering case linked to an alleged smuggling racket of more than Rs 100 crore, official sources said. About five premises in the state, including Hyderabad, are being searched, they said. The money laundering case stems from a Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) complaint against Reddy's son, Harsha Reddy of the Raghav Group, who is alleged to have purchased seven watches worth Rs 7 crore. The payments for these are linked to an alleged hawala and crypto currency racket worth Rs 100 crore and a man named A Naveen Kumar is under the scanner of the ED. Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy, a Congress leader, is the minister for Revenue, Housing, Information and Public Relations in the Telangana government.

Advocate Vivek Jain appeared for Satyendar Jain and informed the court that the reply has been received an hour ago