Now, Ramdev aide Balkrishna gets notice in Rs 4.7-cr Fema case

After registering a money laundering case against yoga guru Ramdev’s key aide Balkrishna, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has now issued him a show cause notice for alleged violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema) to the tune of Rs 4.7 crore.

After registering a money laundering case against yoga guru Ramdev’s key aide Balkrishna, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has now issued him a show cause notice for alleged violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema) to the tune of Rs 4.7 crore.

“The notice has been issued in connection with Fema violation pertaining to transactions of the Jharkhand Mega Food Park Private Limited, a company in which Balkrishna and another Ramdev aide Muktanand are directors. We are in the process of finalising two more Fema violation notices related to entities — Patanjali Ayurved and Divya Yog. These notices will be issued soon,” said an ED official.

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According to ED sources, Jharkhand Mega Food violated section 6 (3) B of the Fema. Besides, it also got money — depicted as foreign direct investment — from Dubai. But the company failed to report it to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). A few more violations of foreign exchange guidelines were also found. Under Fema, the Adjudicating Authority — generally a senior officer of the ED — can impose three times the amount contravened as penalty.

The ED investigators are also looking into the transactions of Vedic Broadcast, a televison production and broadcast company associated with Ramdev. “We suspect that Vedic Broadcast also didn’t report its foreign transactions to the RBI.

The probe related to Vedic Broacast is in the initial phase,” said the ED officer.