ED uncovers Rs 22-crore illegal transactions involving Mittal
The enforcement directorate has found illegal transactions worth Rs 22 crore were conducted from a bank account belonging to Lal Chand, the driver of the city lawyer, Mukesh Mittal, being investigated for alleged money laundering.
The enforcement directorate has found illegal transactions worth Rs 22 crore were conducted from a bank account belonging to Lal Chand, the driver of the city lawyer, Mukesh Mittal, being investigated for alleged money laundering.
Mittal, whose home was raided in January by local enforcement directorate officials, is suspected to be the mastermind behind the conspiracy in illegally selling a shop-cum-flat in Sector 20 belonging to an NRI living in Britain, Tara Singh, for crores of rupees in 2009 without the latter’s knowledge. This eventually became the trigger point in the money laundering probe.
The property sale was effected through power of attorney delegated to Harnek Singh, a clerk working for a local lawyer, Gurdeep Sawhney, whose role in the transaction is also being probed.
After raiding Mittal’s home the ED discovered several property transactions worth hundreds of crores of rupees had been conducted through shell companies in Chandigarh and its periphery.
The ED stated in an affidavit on Wednesday that all documents pertaining to the sale of the Sector 20 property were prepared in Mittal’s office and his clerk, Ajay Singh, signed most of them, including the one delegating power of attorney to Harnek, as a witness.
ED’s raid was followed by a petition by Ajay wherein he challenged the directorate’s action in filing an enforcement case information report (ECIR) and demanded consequential proceedings in the case be quashed.
The directorate was to file its statement on Wednesday in the Punjab and Haryana high court, which, however, asked it to file it through high court registry.
The ED said in the raids conducted at Mittal’s home on January 13 it had seized highly incriminating documents relating to shell companies and properties valued at crores of rupees that it said were suspected to be linked with illegal transactions.