The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested meat exporter Moin Akhtar Qureshi, a childhood friend of former CBI Director A.P. Singh, on money-laundering charges in a case registered against them by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The CBI has accused Qureshi of accepting money from several people for getting them favours from public servants and politicians holding key posts in the government.
“During investigation, certain facts have emerged which constitute omission and commission on the part of certain public servants holding high positions in collusion with Qureshi. Huge amount of illegal money was found to have been transacted,” said the ED.
Qureshi extorted crores from a Hyderabad businessman for the help provided. He was also found involved in ‘hawala’ transactions through Delhi-based operators for money transfers to Dubai and then to Paris, London, the U.S., Hong Kong, Italy and Switzerland.
Messages collected from the Income Tax Department revealed that Qureshi had taken a huge amount of money from different persons for obtaining undue favours. The messages were exchanged between him, the accused in other criminal cases, and also the persons who wanted to seek undue favours from the other investigating agencies, the ED alleged. “This way, he obtained huge amount of money in the name of government servants and political persons holding public office. The said public servants illegally got the money for themselves or through their kin,” it said.
An analysis of the messages retrieved from the mobile phones of Qureshi and his associates revealed that ‘hawala’ operators were allegedly used to transfer bribe money to different foreign locations, like France and the United Kingdom.
The agency said that from the premises of another ‘hawala’ operator in South Delhi, huge amounts of unaccounted cash were seized in the same case.
The ED is also probing the alleged foreign exchange rule violations by Qureshi, whom it has questioned multiple times in the past. In all, two cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act have been registered against him. He is already being investigated by the Income Tax Department under the new Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act.
PTI adds..
Mr. Qureshi has been questioned multiple times in the past by the agency, after it registered two FIRs under the PMLA. In the latest FIR against him this year, Mr. Singh has also been named.
The earlier PMLA case against Mr. Qureshi was booked by the ED in 2015, based on an Income Tax prosecution complaint.
The meat exporter is also facing probes by the I-T department and the CBI for alleged tax evasion, money laundering and corruption among others.
The I-T Department is probing Mr. Qureshi under the new Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015 as probe led it to few foreign assets owned or held by the meat exporter and his family in an alleged illegal manner as they were not declared or reported to Indian tax authorities.
The case emerged after the tax department first carried out searches against Mr. Qureshi and his firm in February 2014.
