ED Attaches 70 Assets Worth ₹315 Crore Of Sharad Pawar Aide In Money Laundering Case

Mumbai: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) attached 70 assets valued at Rs315.6 crore of former NCP Rajya Sabha member and treasurer Ishwarlal Shankarlal Jain Lalwani and his son Manish in a money laundering case on Sunday. The close aide of Sharad Pawar is named in a bank fraud case registered by the CBI.

Action for causing Rs352.49 crore loss to SBI

The attached movable and immovable assets include alleged benami properties acquired by the promoters Ishwarlal, Manish and others based on three FIRs registered by the CBI for causing wrongful loss of more than Rs352.49 crore to the State Bank of India.

The financial probe agency attached 70 assets located in Mumbai, Thane, Jalgaon and Sillod in Maharashtra, and Kutch in Gujarat, including wind mills, silver and diamond jewellery, bullion and Indian currency valued at Rs315.6 crore related to bank fraud case of Rajmal Lakhichand Jewelers Pvt Ltd, R L Gold Pvt Ltd, and Manraj Jewelers Pvt Ltd. The promoters, directors and guarantors — Ishwarlal, Manish, Pushadevi Ishwarlal Jain Lalwani and Neetika Manish Jain Lalwani were named as accused for alleged sale of properties that had been mortgaged with the bank for loans they had borrowed.

The accused allegedly misused the credit facilities of the bank and then used the money for purposes other than mentioned while borrowing the money, leading to a money laundering case being registered against them.

Promoters submitted fake financials to avail loans

The ED investigation had revealed that the promoters had submitted fake financials to avail such loans.

“The promoters also engaged in round tripping of transactions to inflate the financials and booking bogus sale purchase transactions in books of accounts of the accused companies to siphon off the loan proceeds for investments in real estate properties, in collusion with the auditors of the companies,” an ED official allegeded, adding that the promoters were involved in fictitious stock and missing stock inventories of bullion and gold jewellery in books, use of shell companies, and employment of dummy directors.

Earlier, search operations at 13 official and residential premises of Rajmal Lakhichand group in Jalgaon, Nashik and Thane were conducted and the ED seized gold, silver and diamond jewellery or bullion and Indian currency in cash along with various incriminating documents.