New Delhi: A Delhi court has taken cognisance of the chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against 'notorious' hawala operator Naresh Jain and issued non-bailable warrants (NBW) against four of his absconding co-accused.
The ED in a statement said that it had filed a chargesheet against Jain on October 28 under the sections of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with the ongoing investigation into his role in money laundering and international hawala transactions.
It said the Special PMLA Court took cognisance of the chargesheet on Monday and issued NBWs against the four co-accused who are absconding.
The ED said that the investigation conducted so far has revealed that Jain along with his accomplices hatched a criminal conspiracy to forge or fabricate documents in order to cause loss to the government exchequer and banks by providing accommodation entries to the beneficiaries and indulging in illegal foreign exchange transactions.
The ED claimed that Jain allegedly ran an international syndicate of transferring funds through hawala channels using shell companies, tour-and-travel firms and through the formal banking network.
It said that documents like identity proof, birth and education certificates, voter IDs, PAN cards and signatures were forged or fabricated to incorporate entities, operate bank accounts, facilitate bogus or over-invoiced or under-invoiced import and export transactions and rotation of funds through a web of shell companies to cause undue benefit to the parties involved and loss to the government exchequer.
The official also said that Jain facilitated parking of funds abroad by Indian nationals through his international hawala transaction structure created in India and in various other jurisdictions.
"The total proceeds of crime generated by Jain and his accomplices in the form of commission on this hawala and domestic accommodation entry transactions detected till date is Rs 565 crore," the ED said.
Jain, who is suspected to have facilitated illegal transactions amounting to more than Rs 96,000 crore in India using over 600 accounts, was arrested by the ED on September 3.
Jain, along with his accomplices, has allegedly facilitated illegal transactions involving more than Rs 96,000 crore in India using over 600 bank accounts.
According to ED officials, Jain transferred about Rs 11,800 crore to 114 overseas bank accounts on various pretexts. Jain was arrested after a case registered against him by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW).
(IANS)
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