The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued notice to actor Mohanlal to appear before it as part of the agency’s probe against alleged conman and self-styled antiquities dealer Monson Mavunkal.
The actor has been asked to appear for questioning at the Kochi office of the agency based on reports that he had visited the ‘museum-like’ house of Mavunkal here. It had also come across photographs of the actor alongside Mavunkal.
The agency, which is probing the money laundering angle in the activities of Mavunkal, would like to gather information from Mohanlal on how he came into contact with the conman. It is looking at whether some other celebrities or persons were involved in connecting the actor with the fraudster.
The ED came into the picture of the probe against Mavunkal after the Kerala High Court impleaded the agency as a respondent in the case registered against the accused. The court said that the investigation had to be conducted on a larger scale and the police required the assistance of other agencies.
The ED suspected that money laundering was involved under the guise of payments related to the sale of the fake antiquities by the accused.
