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HC Stays Look-Out Circular Issued Against Moin Qureshi

It is understood that the agency has been wanting to question Qureshi for long and had issued summons to him.

Updated
India
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On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court stayed the look-out circular issued against controversial meat exporter Moin Qureshi till 16 November.

The court had asked him to appear before the Enforcement Directorate for questioning in a money laundering case lodged against him.

Justice AK Pathak, however, refused to grant any interim protection from arrest or from any “coercive steps” against Qureshi while asking him to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on 22 November.

The court's direction came on Qureshi's plea, filed through his daughter, in which he urged the court to grant him that protection.

Declining the request, Justice Pathak said, “How can ECIR be quashed at the preliminary stage of the investigation?”.

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On 15 October, Qureshi was briefly detained on Saturday at the Indira Gandhi International Airport based on the look-out circular issued by the ED against him. Subsequently, a team of ED officials had arrived to take him into custody, but he was later allowed to fly to Dubai.

Officials said immigration authorities first alerted Enforcement Directorate sleuths after they intercepted Qureshi, who reached the airport to take a flight to Dubai.

However, according to airport officials, Qureshi told authorities that he has furnished a bond and got the court's nod to travel abroad even as he got a fax sent in this regard from his legal team to the airport, based on which immigration authorities allowed him to travel.

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We have sought the documents from immigration authorities based on which Qureshi was allowed to travel. Our officials were on the spot to take his custody but he was allowed to fly abroad.
ED Sources

It is understood that the agency has been wanting to question Qureshi for a long time and had issued summons to him, but could only lay their hands on him on Saturday .

The agency had registered a money laundering case against Qureshi under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) last year. He is under the scanner of probe agencies for alleged tax evasion and hawala-like dealings.

The agency had slapped the fresh charges under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after taking cognisance of the I-T department's chargesheet (also called prosecution complaint) against Qureshi in their alleged tax evasion case in a local court last year.

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The ED had alleged that Qureshi has sent a “huge amount of funds” through the hawala route to Dubai, London and few other overseas destinations in Europe.

The agency early last year had also conducted searches on Qureshi's premises and had also questioned him.

The Income Tax department, during its probe, had found Qureshi had 11 bank lockers which were in the names of his employees and associates, but the articles belonged to the businessman.

The lockers were operated by the employees of AMQ Group of Qureshi claiming that over Rs 11.26 crore in cash and jewellery worth over Rs 8.35 crore were found in these lockers.

(With inputs from PTI.)

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