The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday attached RJD chief lalu Prasad’s daughter Misa Bharti’s farmhouse in Bijwasan, Palam area in south Delhi in connection with a money laundering case. Misa is a member of the Rajya Sabha. According to ED, Palam Farms was allegedly bought from the money raised through a shell company, M/s Mishail
Packers and Printers Pvt ltd, owned by Misa and her husband Shailesh Kumar. The property is held in the name of Mishail Packers and Printers Pvt ltd.
The Income Tax Department is probing how shell companies were used by lalu Prasad and his family to buy expensive properties in Delhi and Patna.
“The ‘Palam Farms’ located in south-west Delhi’s Bijwasan has been attached provisionally under the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMlA) and it was purchased using Rs 1.2 crore using money laundered in 2008-09, the ED said.
The ED had conducted raids at three farmhouses owned by Bharti and Kumar on July 8 following the arrest of two brothers, Surendra Kumar Jain and Virendra Jain, who are alleged to have laundered crore of rupees using shell companies.
The agency had also arrested a chartered accountant Rajesh Agrawal who allegedly provided “Rs 90 lakh to the Jain brothers in advance so as to invest in Mishail Packers and Printers Pvt ltd as share premium”. Bharti and Kumar are alleged to have been directors of this firm in the past.
“The company, Mishail Packers and Printers Pvt ltd, was registered at the address 25, Tuglak Road, New Delhi till the shares were bought by Bharti. It was only during 2009-10 that the address was changed to 26, Palam Farms, VPO Bijwasan. Bharti and Kumar were the directors of the company during the relevant period,” the ED said.
In this case, one of the beneficiaries of Jain Brothers was Mishail Packers and Printers Pvt ltd., who have laundered their unaccounted money of Rs 1.20 crore by taking accommodation entries, through mediator, in the form of share capital and share premium by various shell companies controlled by Surendra Kumar Jain and Virendra Kumar Jain (Jain Brothers and others). This laundered money was utilised for purchase of a farm house at Bijwasan, New Delhi.
During investigation against Jain Brothers, Jagat Projects ltd and others, it has come out that the 1,20,000 shares of Mishail Packers and Printers Pvt ltd were bought during 2007-08& 2008-09 at 100/- per share, by four shell companies viz Shalini Holdings limited, Ad-Fin Capital Services(India) Pvt ltd, Mani Mala Delhi Properties Pvt ltd and Diamond Vinimay Pvt ltd. These shell companies, except Desmond Vinimay Pvt ltd, were registered at Delhi and were managed and controlled by Jain Brothers (Shri Surendra Kumar Jain, Virendra Jain).
The company Desmond Vinimay Pvt ltd is a Kolkata based company managed by Santosh Kumar Shah. The above mentioned 1,20,000 shares were bought by Misa Bharti at the price of Rs 12/- per share in 2009.
During investigation, it is also revealed that Rajesh Agarwal, CA and Mediator has provided cash Rs 90 lakhs to Jain Brothers in advance so as to invest in Mishail Packers and Printers Pvt ltd as share premium. It is pertinent to mention that Rajesh Aggarwal is also mediator in Jagat Projects ltd.
According to ED, the couple were also interrogated and their statements recorded by the agency in this probe case. The agency said the Jain brothers, CA Agrawal and the daughter and the son-in-law of the former Bihar Chief Minister were the “key persons behind the money laundering of Rs 1.20 crore”.
“The modus operandi of Jain Brothers was to launder the unaccounted money through the process of placement of funds (cash), layering of transactions and the final integration of laundering money into the banking channel camouflaged as legitimate share premium transactions. Funds in cash were brought in by the mediators on behalf of the beneficiaries through the mediators. Jain Brothers were providing accommodation entries by accepting cash from their beneficiaries through mediators and converting the same into share premium transactions in the beneficiary company. In this process Jain Brothers earned money as a certain percentage of the unaccounted money converted into share premium,” the ED alleged.