ED seizes ₹40.34-crore assets of Pune bizman Avinash Bhosale

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized assets worth ₹40

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized assets worth ₹40.34 crore belonging to Pune businessman Avinash Bhosale and his family members for the alleged violations of provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema), 1999.

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Bhosale’s daughter Swapnali Kadam is the wife of state Congress minister Vishwajeet Kadam. She and Bhosale’s son Amit had been questioned by ED officials earlier in the same case.

ED officials on Monday said that the seized assets are equivalent to the foreign securities/properties held by the Bhosales in contravention of Fema. The seized assets are in the form of equity shares and preference shares held in a firm which owns three five-star hotels in Pune, Nagpur and Goa. Further, equity shares held in ABIL (Avinash Bhosale Infrastructure Private Limited) and ₹1.15 crore in various bank accounts held by the family have also been seized.

The Central anti-money laundering agency’s investigation against the Bhosales began in September 2017 after ED had received reliable inputs that the family have acquired an immovable property in Dubai in contravention of Fema. ED’s further probe revealed that the Bhosales acquired foreign securities of a Dubai company, which held the property (around ₹40.34 crore).

To acquire the property, the Bhosales remitted the funds through the liberalised remittance scheme in their bank accounts held outside India. The funds were remitted in different categories: to purchase equity shares in the Dubai-based firm, family maintenances, savings received from an NRI for family maintenance etc. However, the remitted funds were utilised to purchase the immovable property and the shares of the company were allotted against the remitted funds. “It was declared that the company is engaged in real estate business activity. However, investigation revealed that it did not have any business activity and did not generate any income whatsoever,” ED stated.

Bhosale is also facing a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection to a Pune land. In this case, ED officials had conducted raids at Bhosale’s offices and residence in Pune as well as few other places, in February.

Bhosale was previously fined ₹1.83 crore by ED for alleged Fema contravention in the year 2015. The builder was fined on three counts: for opening a bank account abroad without the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) permission, maintaining the bank account even after returning to India and using its international credit card abroad.