ED initiates 10 more money laundering probes against Cox & Kings group

The Enforcement Directorate has registered 10 more money laundering cases against Cox and Kings Group and its directors based on cases registered in Mumbai and Gujarat involving ?3,700 crore. The agency informed the special PMLA court of the new cases while opposing the bail plea of the travel company?s CFO Anil Khandelwal.

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered 10 more money laundering cases against Cox and Kings Group (CKG) and its directors based on cases registered in Mumbai and Gujarat involving ₹3,700 crore. The agency informed the special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court of the new cases while opposing the bail plea of the travel company’s chief financial officer Anil Khandelwal.

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ED had registered the first case based on allegations that Cox and Kings Group had defaulted in repayment of loans to the tune of ₹3,642-crore borrowed from Yes Bank. The loans were allegedly driven by the bank’s former MD and CEO, Rana Kapoor bypassing the norms, the ED had alleged.

CKG promoter Ajay Ajit Peter Kerkar had allegedly with the help of Khandelwal and internal auditor Naresh Jain diverted the loan amount to other group companies.

ED has claimed that apart from this case, it has on March 29 initiated money laundering probes into 10 other cases registered against CKG, Kerkar and others, including two cases registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation, six cases registered by the Mumbai police, and two cases registered by the Gandhinagar police, Gujarat.

Khandelwal’s lawyers Dhruti Chheda and Ankit Pandey of PGC Legal said ED has registered these fresh money laundering cases only after they moved for bail in the first ED case.

“Khandelwal was first arrested by ED in the money laundering case registered on the basis of cases registered by the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police by Kerkar against him. Now, EOW has filed a summary report, seeking to close the case for lack of evidence and Khandelwal had applied for bail contending that since the predicate offence does not survive, the money laundering case also cannot continue,” Chheda said.

Chheda said they moved bail plea earlier this month as the predicate offence against Khandelwal does not exist anymore. “However, now to hold him further, ED has come up with these 10 more cases against the group.”

ED had arrested Khandelwal in connection with the money laundering case linked to the loan taken from Yes Bank, claiming that Yes Bank had a total outstanding of ₹3,642 crores from CKG, which included ₹1,997 crore from their three domestic and two overseas entities. It alleged that Rana Kapoor had in collusion with Ajay Ajit Kerkar, Khandelwal, Naresh Jain and others sanctioned loan to CKG despite the negative reports from senior bank officials.

ED in its reply to Khandelawal’s bail plea claimed that during the probe, it was found that Kerkar was the mastermind and Khandelwal was the prime executor of the plans hatched by him to siphon funds.

“During the course of siphoning and diversion of funds from different banks / institutions, Khandelwal in collusion with Kerkar also diverted ₹275 crore to companies owned by Khandelwal and Jain for their own personal gain,” ED claimed.

ED further said that “bonding and interdependence between Kerkar and Khandelwal was eye-catching and inseparable. Initially, Kerkar, Khandelwal and Jain and their other associates were working in tandem and used to divert the money from the group for their personal use. In around 2018, the group started facing financial difficulties and investigation agencies and regulatory bodies started intervening. Once the investigation started, they started blaming each other to save themselves from the clutches of law.”

The lawyers for Kerkar, Dharmesh S Joshi and Parag T Joshi from T D Joshi & Associates said, “We are in process of taking further steps once we get clarity on new ECIR’s as this is a clear afterthought by Enforcement Directorate. all Fir’s could have been clubbed to one ECIR.”