ED Money-laundering probe: IRS officer purchased Navi Mumbai flat for ₹1.3-cr under ‘dummy firm’

IRS officer Sachin Sawant is under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate for money laundering. The probe revealed that a firm registered under Sawant's name purchased an immovable asset worth over ?1 crore and filed an income tax return claiming zero income. The purchase was made using funds routed through loans and cash deposits from unexplained sources. Sawant was arrested after searches were conducted at his premises. The investigation is based on a CBI case filed against Sawant for allegedly amassing disproportionate assets.

Mumbai: An Enforcement Directorate (ED) money-laundering probe against Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Sachin Sawant, who was arrested on June 27, revealed that a firm registered under Sawant’s name had purchased immovable asset/s, above ₹1 crore and filed Income Tax Return (ITR) only once, claiming its gross income to be zero.

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“The firm under the scanner had filed only one Income Tax Return, in the financial year of 2018 -19, in which the gross income was shown as nil, while ₹6,800 was shown as a loss. The ITR had mentioned a mobile number, which was suspected to have been registered in the name of Sachin Sawant,” an ED official said.

A Navi Mumbai flat, which was worth around ₹1.3 crore at the time of its alleged purchase in the name of the firm, is under the ED’s scanner. The purchase was via funds routed allegedly through different loans, personal and current accounts of Sawant’s parents and other relative/s. It was learnt that about ₹1.02 crore out of the ₹1.3 crore was allegedly arranged in cash.

“During the ED money-laundering investigation, it was revealed that cash deposits of around ₹1.25 crore were made from unexplained sources in the personal bank accounts of Sawant’s family members and in the bank account of a dummy company, wherein his father and brother-in-law were directors,” the ED official said.

“It has been found that immovable property was purchased in the name of said dummy company. The source for the purchase of the said property was shown as personal loans and other bank loans whose repayments were also made in cash,” the official said. “Although the flat is in the name of the dummy firm, the accused occupied the house as its real owner,” the official said.

Sawant, who was working as an additional commissioner of Customs in Lucknow, was arrested after the ED carried out searches at his premises, including in Mumbai. The agency’s money laundering case against Sawant is based on a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s case of June 2022 that was filed against him on charges of allegedly amassing disproportionate assets.

The CBI investigated allegations that Sawant had amassed huge assets in his name, and those of his family members (wife and his parents), and incurred huge expenditures, which were disproportionate to their legal sources of income by around ₹2.45 crore. The sum of ₹2.45 crore was allegedly disproportionate to the tune of 204% of Sawant and his family’s known and legal sources of income during the check period of January 12, 2011, to August 31, 2020, according to the CBI. It was alleged that the assets under the scanner were worth a mere ₹1.42 lakh at the beginning of the check period but escalated to ₹2.07 crore at the end of it.