ED arrests Mohali builder in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested a city-based builder, Rajdeep Sharma, under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002. He has been arrested in the Birfa IT Case.

Five others, Manideep Mago, Sanjay Sethi, Mayank Dang, Tushar Dang and Jaspreet Singh Bagga had earlier been arrested by ED in connection with the case. Sharma was produced before the Special Court, Dwarka, which has remanded him to a seven-day ED custody.

The case involves illegal foreign remittances worth Rs 4,817 crore against bogus and forged invoices for making compensatory payments under invoiced imports made from China and Hong Kong.

The ED investigation revealed that the Dang Brothers, Tushar Dang and Mayank Dang, had set up a well-organised syndicate comprising a big pool of Indian importers and traders, cash handlers, international hawala agents, local angadiya firms, numerous Chinese manufacturers and suppliers and a dedicated chain of warehouses in several Chinese cities.

The investigation has revealed that the goods imported by Dang Brothers were remitted abroad through accused Manideep Mago and Sanjay Sethi. The remittances made by the two were made against bogus invoices raised for online lease of servers for crypto mining, education software, lease of Bare Metal Servers etc.

However, the probe has also revealed that no such services were actually provided and the remittances were made to foreign companies controlled by Mago and his accomplices, from where the payments were made to Chinese companies engaged in export of various products to India.