The Enforcement Directorate has arrested P.V.S. Sarma, director of Sanket Media Private Limited, in connection with a money-laundering case. The agency has got his custody till December 2.
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Sanket Media prints and publishes the newspaper Satyam Times , which has both Gujarati and English editions. Mr. Sarma has been accused of laundering the proceeds generated out of criminal offences through the company.
“Following the arrest, Mr. Sarma was produced before a Special Court in Ahmedabad, which granted his custody to the ED till December 2,” said an official.
The ED initiated the money-laundering probe on the basis of an FIR registered by the Surat police under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, pursuant to the findings of the Income-Tax Department against Mr. Sarma and his company.
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The ED, in a statement on Friday, said circulations of the English and Gujarati editions of the newspaper were shown as 23,500 and 6,000-6,300 copies daily, but the actual figures were only around 300-600 and 0-290, respectively.
“Inflated figures of circulation were shown so as to attract more advertising agencies, including the Directorate of Advertisement and Visual Publicity and other private advertising companies, to publish their advertisements in the said newspaper,” said the ED.
Mr. Sarma, through Sanket Media, indulged in conspiracy and cheated the government and private advertising companies and by doing so, received ₹2.70 crore, it is alleged.
For this purpose, bogus purchase of raw materials was shown by making false entries in the books of accounts from non-existent companies and by creating fake documents, said the agency.