The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached a farmhouse of RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s daughter Misa Bharti in a money laundering case involving shell companies.
The Bijwasan farmhouse in Delhi had been bought in the name of Mishail Packers and Printers, in which Ms. Bharti and her husband Shailesh Kumar are directors.
The farmhouse, according to the ED, was purchased using ₹ 1.2 crore — involved in money laundering — in 2008-09.
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The agency has already recorded the statements of Ms. Bharti and her husband to get details about their company and its operations.
Earlier, the Serious Fraud Investigating Office had filed a criminal complaint against those running the shell companies providing accommodation entries, based on which the Directorate initiated the money-laundering probe.
The accused persons laundered unaccounted cash through the process of placement of funds, layering of transactions and the final integration of the money into the banking channel camouflaged as legitimate share premium transactions.
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Funds in cash were brought in by the mediators on behalf of the ultimate beneficiaries through mediators.
One such beneficiary company was identified by the ED as Mishail Packers and Printers, which allegedly got laundered ₹ 1.20 crore by taking accommodation entries in the form of share capital and share premium by various shell companies “controlled” by accused Surendra and Virendra Kumar Jain.
The amount was used for buying the farm house, alleges the agency.
The ED also alleges that 1.2 lakh shares of Mishail Packers and Printers were bought by four shell companies in 2007-08 and 2008-09, at ₹100 per unit.
Three of the shell companies were registered in Delhi, while one operated from Kolkata.
The same set of shares were later allegedly bought back by Ms. Bharti at ₹ 12 per unit in 2009.
“Rajesh Agarwal, a Chartered Accountant and mediator, had provided Rs.90 lakh in cash to the Jain brothers in advance to invest in Mishail Packers and Printers as share premium,” said the agency.
The ED has so far arrested the Jains and Mr. Agarwal in the case.