The Enforcement Directorate has filed a Prosecution Complaint (chargesheet in police parlance) before a special court in Patna in a money laundering case relating to misuse of banking channels for suspicious huge amount of illegal cash transaction post-demonetization.
Those named in the prosecution complaint are Raj Kumar Goenka, Ashok Kumar Goenka, Ratan Kumar Goenka of Muzaffarpur and Pankaj Agrawal of Kolkata.
The agency has urged the court for awarding punishment to the accused for the offence of money laundering and confiscation of the attached assets worth Rs 4.61 crore in the form of movable and immovable properties in the name of Raj Kumar Goenka and in the name of his family members.
The Enforcement Directorate initiated investigation against Raj Kumar Goenka and others under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on the basis of FIR registered with Mithanpura police station in Muzaffarpur, Bihar for IPC Sections relating to criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery among others.
“Investigation under PMLA has revealed that Raj Kumar Goenka along with his brothers fraudulently and dishonestly opened several bank accounts by misusing photographs and other documents of their employees and huge cash transactions were affected from these bank accounts without the knowledge of the actual account holders,” the ED said in a statement. Subsequently, by way of RTGS/NIFT, the said deposited cash was transferred to the bank accounts of Goenka's counterparts in various cities like Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai.
Goenka’s associates in other cities used to receive cash against cheque from various entities and the cash so received were given to the person/entity, on behalf of whom, cash was received by Goenka Brothers in Muzaffarpur, the agency said.
Proceeds of crime amounting to Rs. 25.80 crores were deposited in these bank accounts and the same were dishonestly transferred and layered through various bank accounts with an intention to launder the tainted money to project the same as untainted.Earlier, Proceeds of Crime (POC) worth Rs 4.61 crore was provisionally attached.
Investigation also revealed that Pankaj Agarwal was facilitating the money laundering at Kolkata in collusion with Goenka brothers at Muzaffarpur.
The accused Pankaj Agrawal and Raj Kumar Goenka were arrested by ED on September 22 this year and they are undergoing judicial custody at Adarsh Kendriya Kara Beur, Patna, it added.