Court takes cognisance of ED chargesheet against journalist Rajeev Sharma

The court said it prima facie found a case under sections of 3 and 4 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after hearing the submission of the public prosecutor and noting the available material on record. The two sections are related to money laundering and involvement in laundering proceeds of crime directly or indirectly.

A city court on Tuesday took cognizance of the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) charge sheet alleging money laundering by journalist Rajeev Sharma, who was arrested for allegedly leaking classified information to Chinese intelligence agencies, a Chinese national Qing Shi and a Nepal national Sher Singh.

Rajeev Sharma, a freelance journalist, was arrested by the Delhi Police’s special cell for allegedly passing on classified information to Chinese intelligence agencies. (PTI)

The court said it prima facie found a case under sections of 3 and 4 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after hearing the submission of the public prosecutor and noting the available material on record. The two sections are related to money laundering and involvement in laundering proceeds of crime directly or indirectly.

On September 14, 2020, Sharma, a freelance journalist, was arrested by the Delhi Police’s special cell for allegedly passing on classified information to Chinese intelligence agencies. Police also arrested Shi and Nepal national, Sher Singh alias Sher Bahadur, for allegedly running shell companies through which they received money from Chinese agencies. In July 2021, ED filed a case against the three on the basis of the Delhi Police’s charge sheet filed in December 2020.

The court has fixed October 4 as the next date of hearing.

The three accused are currently in judicial custody in the alleged money laundering case.

In the police’s charge sheet, seen by HT, investigators claimed that Sharma received money from his handler, identified as George, through two shell companies based in Mahipalpur. The charge sheet names the two companies, MZ Mall and MZ Pharmacy, which were allegedly run by Shi and two other Chinese nationals, Zhang Zeng and Zhang Lixia. According to the charge sheet, Zeng and Lixia could not be arrested as they had left for China and could not return to India because of the Covid-19 lockdown.

The charge sheet says that though Singh was also shown as a co-director in MZ Pharmacy along with Shi, adding that in reality, he was only a driver. A bank statement submitted to the ED, which was also mentioned in the charge sheet, shows that there were cash transfers of around ₹2 crore in the account of MZ Pharmacy.

The charge sheet also has the statement of the landlord of the Mahipalpur property and his bank statements, to show that the two office spaces were rented for ₹70,000 per month since September 2019.

Meanwhile, Sharma’s counsel, Amish Aggarwala, denied the charges.

“We will approach high court to quash the charge sheet. Merely saying that my client routed money through shell companies is not enough. The ED filed the charge sheet on the basis of the one filed by the police which claimed laundering through shell companies. However, police and ED have not been able to produce any evidence that the so called companies were shell companies. They have no evidence against my client. They have also alleged that my client was in contact with a woman who was an agent of Chinese intelligence agencies. But the ED and police has brought no evidence to support the claim that she is an agent of China. There is no evidence from officers of the Defence Ministry or the Indian Army that the alleged seized document was a secret file,” he said.