New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) In connection with its ongoing probe into the Axis Bank demonetised currency case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday said that it has attached movable and immovable properties worth Rs 2.95 crore belonging to Puneet Jain, Hemraj Singh, Vinod Deshmukh, Rajeev Singh Kushwaha, Mehfooz Khan, Pravesh Kumar Gandhi and others.
The ED in a statement said that the properties were attached provisionally under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The agency has registered a case on the basis of a case registered by Delhi Police after it had seized Rs 3.70 crore in the form of demonetised Rs 1,000 crurrency notes.
The statement said that during investigation it was revealed that following the November 2016 demonetisation announcement, the accused Mohit Garg, Nitin Gupta, Vineet Gupta, Shobhit Sinha and Axis Bank officials used the shell companies - Beagle Marketing, Sunrise Trading Co, R. D. Traders, Himalayan Traders - of Rajeev Singh Kushwaha for illegal exchange of the demonetised currencies of Vinod Deshmukh, Puneet Jain, Hemraj Singh, Pravesh Kumar Gandhi and others.
The agency said the accused Garg, Gupta and Kushwaha used to collect demonetised currency from different persons and deposit them into the account of shell companies operated by Kushwaha.
"This was done with the help of Axis Bank officials. The amount deposited in these sell companies were further transferred to the account of different bullion traders for buying gold and, thus, they converted demonetised currency into gold or RTGS form on commission basis and illegally exchanged demonetized currency into gold," the agency said.
The agency also said that during the probe it was also revealed that demonetised currency worth Rs 40 crore in possession of different persons was converted in this manner.
"Garg and Kushwaha illegally earned commission 15 per cent of the total amount deposited in the account of shell companies and the Axis Bank officials illegally received commission of 2 per cent of the deposited amount," it said.
The ED had earlier arrested Kushwaha, Gupta and Sinha, all three of whom are Axis Bank officials and currently out on bail.
The ED had filed a chargesheet in connection with the case against Gupta, Sinha and Kushwaha on February 1, 2017. The agency has also filed a supplementary chargesheet against another 18 accused.
The agency has earlier attached movable and immovable property worth Rs 11.86 crore, in connection with the case and seized properties worth Rs 3.36 crore during searches.
It has till date attached properties involved in the case worth Rs 18.19 crore.
--IANS
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