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Sanjeev Arora’s arrest: Firm under daily wager’s name used for bogus deals, ED tells court
Agency alleges fake purchase worth ₹27.73-crore from a firm registered in the name of a daily-wage labourer
An alleged ₹27.73-crore purchase from a bogus firm registered in the name of a daily-wage labourer landed minister Sanjeev Arora and his company, Hampton Sky Realty Limited (HSRL), in trouble and led to his arrest under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) told the court while seeking his remand.
The businessman-turned-politician was arrested at his official residence in Chandigarh on May 9. The special PMLA court in Gurugram remanded the AAP leader in the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) custody for a week on Sunday.
The ED has alleged that M/S SK Enterprises, a firm registered in the name of daily-wage labourer Kamal Ahmad, was used as a conduit to route funds through layered banking transactions without any genuine business activity.
According to the agency, between August 2023 and January 2024, HSRL, linked to Arora, transferred ₹27.73 crore to SK Enterprises through 41 RTGS transactions routed via multiple bank accounts maintained with different banks.
The ED alleged that the use of multiple accounts and routing of transactions in phases indicated a deliberate layering of funds to conceal the money trail.
Ahmad, in his statement under the PMLA, claimed he had no knowledge of the firm’s operations despite it being registered in his name. He stated that one Azhar Haider alias “Monty” had obtained his Aadhaar Card and PAN details, managed GST registration, bank accounts, net banking, and financial transactions, and used the entity for accommodation entries (fictitious, sham transactions) in return for a commission.
Azhar Haider allegedly admitted before the ED that he provided accommodation entries on commission, dealt mainly in cash transactions, and that no actual supply of goods took place in transactions routed through the accounts.
HSRL has shown mobile phone sales valued at approximately ₹157.12 crore from May 12, 2023, to October 27, 2023, to several local and overseas entities. Out of this, ED told the court that exports worth about ₹102.50 crore were made to two UAE-based entities —Fortbel Telecom FZCO and Dragon Global FZCO, which were mostly fake.
ED alleged in court that “during the course of the search operation, a detailed investigation of the supply chain of the purchase parties indicated that many of the supplier entities are non-existent, shell/dummy firms, or entities with no financial capacity, which have issued bogus invoices without the actual supply of goods”. It added that several such entities are either non-filers of Income Tax Returns, reporting negligible income, or have been deregistered/suspended under GST shortly after a brief period of operation.”
The mobile phones were purchased locally in India and were shown to be exported to the Middle East, said ED.
Further, ED said that one of the mobile numbers belonged to Kartik Verma, who was also covered in the FEMA search and seizure operation conducted by the ED on April 17.
“The investigation revealed that the number has been misused by certain individuals for generating fake invoices. Verma has also made a complaint with Haryana Police, stating therein that he has been receiving SMS from the GST department regarding notices issued on certain firms which have been registered with GST by linking with his mobile number,” ED added.
Taking into account the ED submissions, the court observed that the allegations against Sanjeev Arora were serious and the ED has a valid ground for custodial interrogation to decode the money trail, roles of the accused and proceeds of crime.
“The above-mentioned goal can be achieved only when the opportunity is given to the applicant to interrogate the accused in custody,” the court observed in its order.
