Jacqueline Fernandez. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

Image used for representational purposes. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Mumbai:

The ED told the Bombay High Court on Thursday that it would not act upon the eviction notices issued to actor Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra till their application challenging a property attachment order is heard and decided by an appellate tribunal.

On September 27, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) issued notices to Shilpa Shetty and her businessman husband, directing them to vacate their house in Mumbai’s Juhu area and a farmhouse in Pune in connection with a money laundering case.

The duo challenged the same in the HC, terming it as arbitrary, illegal and uncalled for.

The notices were issued pursuant to an attachment order passed by the agency against the couple’s properties.

A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj Chavan had on Wednesday asked the ED what was the urgency to issue an eviction notice after the attachment order was passed when the couple has a legal remedy to appeal against the order.

On Thursday, the ED told the court that the eviction notices shall not be acted upon till the petitioners file their appeal against the attachment order and the same is decided by the tribunal.

The bench accepted the statement and said in the event of an adverse order by the tribunal, the notices shall not be brought into effect for a period of two weeks thereafter.

The court disposed of the petitions.

Ms Shetty and Raj Kundra, in their petitions, challenged the ED notices dated September 27 directing them to evict their residential premises here and a farmhouse in Pune within 10 days in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged Bitcoin fraud.

The couple’s advocate, Prashant Patil, said Ms Shetty and Mr 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 vacate their premises and that the issuance of such eviction notices was uncalled for.

“The petitioners are also seeking relief on humanitarian grounds as the premise in question is their residential premise in which they have been staying with their family of six members for almost two decades,” the couple said in their pleas.

The petitions also demanded that the HC stay the effect of the eviction notices.

As per the pleas, the ED in 2018 lodged a complaint against one Amit Bhardwaj and others for an alleged Bitcoin fraud and on charges of money laundering. Shilpa Shetty and her husband have not been named as accused in the case.

The ED, during its probe, summoned Kundra for questioning on several occasions. Raj Kundra appeared before the agency after each summons, the pleas said.

In April 2024, Ms Shetty and Raj Kundra received a notice based on an order passed by the ED provisionally attaching their assets, including their residential premise in Mumbai’s Juhu area which was purchased by Raj Kundra’s father in 2009.

Both Ms Shetty and Raj Kundra submitted their response to the notice.

“However, in contravention to the provisions of law, the adjudicating authority confirmed the provisional attachment order on September 18, 2024. This order clearly states that the attachment is confirmed only till the conclusion of trial and is subject to its outcome,” the pleas said.

“The petitioners (Ms Shetty and Mr Kundra) on October 3 received two notices dated September 27, 2024, directing them to vacate their residential premises and the farmhouse,” the couple said.

No eviction order/notice can be issued prior to conviction, the petitions said.

The couple in their pleas also said their residential premise has no connection with the scheduled offence or any proceeds of crime.

The petitions further claimed that Raj Kundra had absolutely no connection with the alleged fraud.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

A court here on Monday rejected an application filed by jailed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seeking directions to the prison authorities for granting two additional meetings with his lawyers through video conferencing.

Special Judge Kaveri Baweja noted that as per the plea, Kejriwal is facing around 30 litigations across the country and on the grounds of the right to a fair trial, he requires two additional meetings with his lawyers through video conferencing (VC) to discuss the cases.

“It is not in dispute that a similar application filed by the applicant (Kejriwal) seeking the same relief i.e. additional legal meetings with his lawyers was dismissed by this court vide a detailed order dated April 10, 2024,” the court said.

It said the present application disclosed no new or fresh reasons to take a view different from the earlier order.

“Counsel for applicant has failed to convince the court as to how the applicant is entitled to two additional legal meetings through VC on the same grounds which have been discussed and dealt with in the earlier order,” the court said.

It said during the arguments, Kejriwal’s counsel was asked to withdraw the application and to move a fresh application with additional or fresh grounds, if any, which the advocate refused.

“Thus, having considered the submissions made and the observations already made vide order dated April 10, 2024, I see no reason whatsoever to allow the application under consideration,” said the judge dismissing the plea. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Singapore:

Singapore: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Friday adopted a mutual evaluation report that assesses the effectiveness of India’s anti-money laundering and countering the terrorist financing regime, a move the government termed a “significant milestone”.

In its brief outcome statement at the end of its three-day plenary meeting here, the global body said India’s legal regime in these two domains was “achieving good results” and that the country has reached a “high level of technical compliance” with the FATF requirements.

It, however, said the country needs to address “delays” related to the conclusion of money laundering and terrorist financing prosecutions.

The final evaluation report for the country will be published later when the “quality and consistency review” is completed, it said.

Sources involved in the process said India has been placed in the “regular follow up” category, a distinction shared by only four other G20 countries, which means that it needs to submit a progress report on implementing FATF measures only in October 2027.

Countries placed in the ‘enhanced follow up’ category are required to submit a follow up report every year.

The Paris-headquartered body leads global action to tackle money laundering, terrorist and proliferation financing. The latest decisions were made public at the end of the June 26-28 FATF plenary.

The Indian side was represented by Additional secretary in the Union finance ministry and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in-charge Director Vivek Aggarwal.

In New Delhi, the Union finance ministry issued a statement saying the positive evaluation of India by the FATF was a significant milestone in the country’s efforts to combat money laundering and terror financing.

India’s performance on FATF mutual evaluation demonstrates overall stability, integrity of the financial system, the ministry said.

India’s mutual evaluation on FATF guidelines, a measure that checks a country’s efficacy to frame robust laws and policy and implement them to check financial crimes, was last done in 2010.

An FATF peer review of India ended early this year after a team of international experts made an ‘on-site’ or a physical visit to New Delhi and met officials from various central and state intelligence, investigative agencies, financial regulators and judiciary.

The statement issued at the end of the plenary said it was concluded that India has reached a high level of technical compliance with the FATF requirements and its AML/CFT/CPF regime is achieving good results, including in its money laundering and terrorist financing risk understanding, international cooperation, access to basic and beneficial ownership information, use of financial intelligence, and depriving criminals of their assets and counter-proliferation financing measures.

AML stands for anti-money laundering, CFT for countering financing of terror and CPF means counter proliferation financing.

The statement, however,added that India required “improvements” to strengthen the supervision and implementation of preventive measures in some of the non-financial sectors.

“India also needs to address delays relating to concluding money laundering and terrorist financing prosecutions, and to ensure that CFT measures aimed at preventing the non-profit sector from being abused for terrorist financing are implemented in line with the risk-based approach, including by conducting outreach to non-profit organisations on their terrorist financing risks,” it said.

The government said India’s performance on the FATF mutual evaluation “accrues significant advantages to our growing economy, as it demonstrates the overall stability and integrity of the financial system.” 

“Good ratings will lead to better access to global financial markets and institutions and increase investor confidence. It will also help in the global expansion of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India’s fast payment system,” it said.

The finance ministry said this recognition from the FATF was a “testament to the rigorous and effective measures implemented by India over the last 10 years to safeguard its financial system from ML/TF threats.” 

“It underscores the country’s commitment to international standards and its proactive stance in the global fight against financial crimes,” it said adding this also sets a benchmark for “countries in our region” to effectively implement international standards on terrorist financing.

The ministry said by this adoption, FATF has recognised India’s efforts mitigating the risks arising from money laundering and terrorist financing, including the laundering of proceeds from corruption, fraud, and organised crime.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the FATF has given a good and astounding outcome for India.

File picture of former DPIIT secretary Ramesh Abhishek, whose premises have been raided by the Enforcement Directorate
| Photo Credit: Kamal Narang

The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday raided the premises of retired IAS officer and former Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) secretary Ramesh Abhishek as part of a disproportionate assets linked money laundering probe against him, official sources said.

The ED case stems from a recent CBI FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the 1982-batch officer. He was raided by the CBI in February.

Mr. Abhishek retired in 2019 from the DPIIT (erstwhile Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion).

The ED is searching the premises of Mr. Abhishek as part of a money laundering investigation, the sources said.

The CBI had alleged in its FIR that Mr. Abhishek enriched himself “illicitly” after retirement by receiving “huge amounts” as consultation fee from private companies whose matters he had dealt while in service.

The CBI and ED have also booked his daughter Vanessa.

The retired officer also held the post of chairman, Forward Markets Commission, and the CBI case was booked against him on a reference from anti-corruption ombudsman Lokpal.

The Lokpal has alleged that the father-daughter duo received big amounts as professional fee from various entities and organisations with whom the former IAS officer had official dealings as the secretary or the chairman.

New Delhi:

The Enforcement Directorate has attached various immovable and movable properties having a total value of Rs 8.80 crore belonging to former Delhi Jal Board (DJB) Chief Engineer Jagdish Kumar Arora, his wife Alka Arora, and others, in a money laundering case, the agency said on Tuesday. Among the owners is Anil Kumar Aggarwal, proprietor of Integral Screw Industries (sub-contractor) and NKG Infrastructure Limited (contractor of DJB).

ED said the properties were attached under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, in the case of Jagdish Kumar Arora and others. “The immovable properties are situated in Delhi,” the ED said.

The ED initiated investigations based on the First Information Report registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which contained scheduled offenses related to corruption and bribery in the DJB.

The FIR alleged that Arora awarded the flow meter contract of DJB to NKG Infrastructure Ltd at a highly inflated cost of Rs 38 crore even though the company did not meet the technical eligibility criteria.

The ED investigation revealed that NKG Infrastructure Ltd. obtained the bid by submitting forged, fake, and false documents. As per the ED, Arora was aware of the fact that the company did not meet the technical eligibility criteria for sanctioning the tender.

“NKG Infrastructure Ltd sub-contracted the work to Integral Screws Ltd, a proprietorship firm of Anil Kumar Aggarwal. Out of the Rs 24 crore payment received by DJB, only about Rs 14 crore was spent towards the contract work, and the remaining amount was siphoned off and spent for bribes,” the ED said.

“Jagdish Kumar Arora received a bribe of Rs 3.19 crore, out of which he transferred Rs 2 crore to other DJB officials and the Aam Aadmi Party as an election fund,” the agency said.

ED had earlier conducted search operations on July 24, 2023, and November 17, 2023, which resulted in the seizure of incriminating documents and evidence.

The agency arrested Arora and Anil Kumar Aggarwal on January 31 and both are in judicial custody. The prosecution complaint against Jagdish Kumar Arora, Anil Kumar Aggarwal, and their close associates was filed on March 28.

New Delhi:

The Enforcement Directorate on Monday alleged that senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid’s wife Louise Khurshid and two others “laundered” Rs 71.50 lakh in central government funds for their personal gain.

The federal agency said in a statement that it has provisionally attached 15 agricultural land parcels located in the Farrukhabad district of Uttar Pradesh and some bank deposits, worth a combined Rs 45.92 lakh, of the Dr Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust, under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

A probe found that “grant-in-aid of Rs 71.50 lakh received by the trust was not utilised for holding camps sanctioned by the Government of India but was laundered by Pratyush Shukla, a representative of the trust, Mohammad Athar, secretary to the trust, and Louise Khurshid, project director of the trust, for the interest of the trust and their personal gain”, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) claimed.

In this way, the fund received as grant-in-aid was laundered for their personal gain and leading to generation of proceeds of crime, it said.

The money-laundering case stems from 17 FIRs of the Economic Offences Wing of the Uttar Pradesh Police.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

An Indian national has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiring to commit money laundering, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado has said.

Dhruv Jani (40) has also been ordered to pay $ 1.1 million restitution, a media release issued on Friday said.

According to the plea agreement, starting in January 2020, Jani was part of a conspiracy to launder funds obtained through a government official imposter scheme.

Victims in the U.S. were contacted by telephone and coerced into believing that they were under investigation by “agents” of federal law enforcement agencies.

Federal prosecutors said the victims were told that their identities had been connected to a criminal incident, that their imminent arrest and/or deportation from the United States had been ordered by law enforcement and that the only way to avoid arrest and/or deportation was to pay the “government” large sums of money.

The “agent” then convinced the victim to package and ship the cash to alleged government officials via Federal Express or United Parcel Service. Many of these victims were also directed to mail packages of cash to individuals in other states.

“This sentence holds Mr Jani accountable for his malicious acts of orchestrating Social Security-related and government imposter scams that preyed upon vulnerable persons,” said Gail S. Ennis, Inspector General for the Social Security Administration.