ED searches 18 locations in UP, Delhi in Shine City PMLA case

The group’s promoter brothers--Rashid and Asif Naseem--had floated 58 lucrative schemes to dupe investors and vanished after collecting around ₹1,025 crore from them,” an official said. While Asif is in jail, Rashid has fled to the UAE.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday carried out searches at 18 locations in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh’s four districts--Lucknow, Varanasi, Prayagraj and Hardoi--in connection with a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case lodged against Shine City Group of companies and its promoters, ED officials in Lucknow confirmed.

So far, the police and the EOW have arrested at least 56 people associated with Asif and his companies but failed to nail Rashid.

In January 2021, the ED booked the group and its promoters, brothers Rashid and Asif Naseem, for the alleged laundering of around ₹800 crore after several police complaints were lodged against them for fraud and duping investors. Later, it also attached the group’s properties worth ₹128 crore.

While Asif was arrested from Prayagraj and has been languishing in the Lucknow district jail since November 2021, his elder brother Rashid fled the country and was claimed to be operating from the UAE. Meanwhile, the state police’s Economic Offence Wing (EOW), which was investigating around 450 cases registered in the matter at different police stations, had applied for the extradition of Rashid through the embassy of Abu Dhabi in India in October 2022.

So far, the police and the EOW have arrested at least 56 people associated with Asif and his companies but failed to nail Rashid.

Sharing further details, a senior EOW official said the two brothers allegedly floated multiple lucrative schemes through the Shine Group and allegedly invested people’s money in the UAE, South Africa and other countries illegal. “The duo floated 58 lucrative schemes to dupe investors and vanished after collecting around ₹1,025 crore from them,” the official said.