Money laundering: ED summons four associates of advocate Mukesh Mittal

The ED has issued summons to four associates of advocate Mukesh Mittal, including fresh reminders to two of them, to appear before it next week. The agency is probing money laundering in a number of property deals through shell (bogus) companies.

The ED has issued summons to four associates of advocate Mukesh Mittal, including fresh reminders to two of them, to appear before it next week. The agency is probing money laundering in a number of property deals through shell (bogus) companies.

ED sources informed that Mittal’s driver Lal Chand, his munshi Praveen Kumar’s brother Manish Kumar, have been issued fresh summons, while associates Rajiv Awasthi and Nishant Goyal have also been issued the notices to appear before it. Rajiv Awasthi, said ED officials is director of Chandigarh Stores, a accompany registered in a flat in Modern Housing Complex, Mani Majra.

The ED investigators are going through property details worth several hundred crores and over 100 bank accounts which they recovered during their raid on Mittal’s house in Sector 18, Chandigarh, on January 13. The agency found that, in the recent past, transactions worth `35 crore have been made through the bank accounts of Praveen Kumar, Lal Chand and Ajay Singh.

ED officials added that these companies are involved in gathering unsecured loans from individuals and then handing over the unsecured funds as loans to others. Persons are appointed and removed as directors for the purpose. This, in money laundering parlance, is called “layering of funds”. Layering hides the movement of black money into the white. The ED officials added that all those persons who gave and received unsecured loans to the various shell companies will be questioned.

According to the annual returns and balance sheets filed by Mukesh Mittal’s munshi Ajay Mittal and another munshi Praveen Kumar as the directors of the company, Shivalik Services and Promoters Pvt Ltd, for March 31, 2009, the company with a share capital of Rs 2 lakh, procured unsecured loans worth Rs 2.26 crore and passed on loans and advances worth Rs 2.28 crore.

According to the annual returns and balance sheets filed by Mukesh Mittal’s munshi Ajay Mittal and another munshi Praveen Kumar as Directors of company Lake View Services and Promoters Pvt Ltd for March 31, 2011, the company with a share capital of Rs 2 lakh, procured unsecured loans worth Rs 81 lakh and passed on loans and advances worth Rs 1.01 crore.

The statement of Ajay Singh has been recorded once in the case and this has hinted at the involvement of Mittal.