ED conducts searches in city in probe against bizman

he police case was registered in August 2019 against businessman Mansukh Gala, on the basis of which the ED had registered a money-laundering case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act

Mumbai The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday carried out searches at a few premises linked to a city businessman and his chartered accountant as part of its money-laundering probe based on case related to cheating and criminal breach of trust.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) carried out raids Mumbai`s popular Saree Shop BharatKshetra at Dadar area in Mumbai

The police case was registered in August 2019 against businessman Mansukh Gala, on the basis of which the ED had registered a money-laundering case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Gala runs a saree showroom in Dadar that was among the premises searched by the ED. The police case was registered based on a complaint from businessman Arvind Shah, a resident of Bhoiwada.

The police case was registered under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections including those related to criminal conspiracy (120B), cheating (420) common intent (34), criminal breach of trust (406), forgery (465) and using as genuine any document or electronic record which he knows or has reason to believe to be a forged document or electronic record (471) against Gala and his chartered accountant.

It was alleged that the complainant had wanted to develop three Parel buildings, for which he had received ownership rights through a Power of Attorney from a trust. To redevelop the buildings, Shah wanted to redevelop the buildings so a firm, ‘SB Developers’ was formed. There were rooms on the third floor in one of the buildings housing a defunct civic Tamil language school. To cancel the lease of the school, the complainant was allegedly required to pay ₹67 lakh to the BMC.

The petitioner then approached the accused who agreed to help on certain terms and conditions. As per one of the conditions, the accused asked to be taken as a 50% partner in the firm. It was alleged that the accused could have taken control of assets worth ₹5 crore as per the then market value in an irregular manner, as per the police case.