Cracking down on a hawala racket, the Enforcement Directorate has arrested six businessmen here for allegedly laundering money to the tune of Rs 50 crore.
Three of the accused - Harmesh Arora, Harish Chowdhary and Pradeep Kumar Manglik - are in the custody of ED following an order from a special court, while the remaining persons - Sarfarash Ahmad, Gopal Singh and Gopal Sharma - will be produced before the court soon, official sources said.
All the six businessmen, dealing in readymade garments, were allegedly over-invoicing their trade bills by about 25 per cent to foreign countries and earning illegal profits, they said.
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The businessmen were already being investigated by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence for allegedly fudging their export bills.
The ED, which claimed to have found that they were illegally transferring money for other business ventures abroad as well, has booked all of them under stringent provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
This is the first case in the country where provisions of the Customs Act and PMLA have been applied together on the accused, the sources said.
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The businessmen have been accused of floating bogus companies and giving fictitious addresses to conceal the original transactions taking place between them and other firms, they said.
They also alleged that false withdrawals and investments have been shown under various companies like AMV Impex and Balaji Impex, Triveni Exports of Delhi, Bmoon Overseas, Ghaziabad, GK Impex, Meerut and some other firms in the national capital.
The ED said it is probing investment of the illegal money and properties abroad and within the country.