Sitting MP, corporations named in charge sheet

MP Sanjay Kakade, DB Realty chairman and MD Vinod Goenka and Asif Balwa, brother of DB Group and Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa among individuals named

Apart from the Bhujbals, the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) money-laundering charge sheet in the Maharashtra Sadan and Hex World cases names certain corporations and a sitting Member of Parliament. An ED source said the companies named include DB Realty, Balwa Group, Neelkamal Realtors and Builders Pvt Ltd, Neelkamal Central Apartment LLP, and Kakade Infrastructure. Individuals named include Member of Parliament Sanjay Kakade, DB Realty chairman and MD Vinod Goenka and Asif Balwa, brother of DB Group and Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa.

The criminal complaint is 150 pages long; with the addition of documents that investigators relied on, the charge sheet runs into over 11,000 pages.

“Some of the accused had invested in companies promoted by the Bhujbals and these transactions appear fishy. Investigations have revealed that the Bhujbals returned the money to them in a year, without any interest. We found that these companies had invested in flats that were to be built on a plot in Bandra. Why would a real estate developer invest in someone else’s project?” said a high-ranking officer.

Read more Bhujbal, 52 others named in ED’s money-laundering charge sheet

According to the ED, scrutiny of the bank statements of various firms controlled by the Bhujbals revealed that they received funds on unregistered documents with Rs 100 stamp papers from DB Realty Ltd (Rs 5 crore), Balwa Group of Companies (Rs 20 crore), Kakade Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (Rs 10 crore) and several other sources.

The charge sheet also includes the statement of Amit Balraj, a former employee of the Mumbai Educational Trust and the prime witness. According to the ED, Biraj said he saw huge leather bags containing Indian currency being brought to the ninth floor of the MET building in Bandra, where it was counted by machines before being stored in a ‘cash room’. According to Biraj, the cash largely comprised Rs 1,000 notes and each bag contained about Rs 1 crore. He also told the ED that he had, on a few occasions, heard Sameer Bhujbal telling his associates that cash would be arriving at the MET building shortly.