Advocate Prashant Patil, lawyer of businessman Raj Kundra, on Thursday stated that there is no proceeds of crime in the predicate offence of Mumbai Police, based on which the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has launched its money laundering case. The lawyer in fact claimed that the company with which Kundra was associated, Kundra had suffered losses of lakhs of rupees and had exited from the said company.
"We have not received any official confirmation or communication from the Enforcement Directorate regarding any ECIR filed in the said case against my client Raj Kundra. However, if the media reports about ED taking up the matter are true then it’s my client's duty to cooperate with the Inquiry /investigation conducted by the ED regarding the said matter. The predicate offence registered by Mumbai Police has culminated into a charge sheet and is pending before the Court," said Advocate Patil.
He added, "The said predicate case does not carry any allegations of proceeds of crime. There are no allegations by the Mumbai police in the entire chargesheet which may attract the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act. In whichever case, we have complete faith in the investigation , and we shall cooperate with the investigation to the best of our ability. Kundra was associated with a company for hardly 5-6 months and had suffered huge losses and had exited from the company."
"Mumbai Police had earlier filed a case against other persons and filed chargesheet in the case and after a few months, during the supplementary investigation, Kundra was called for enquiries and was then placed under arrest in that case. A supplementary chargesheet was filed in the case," he said.
Raj Kundra was arrested by the Mumbai Police in 2021 for allegedly running a porn racket with operations outside India as well. The ED will probe into the financial transaction pertaining to the case. The police had revealed that alleged pornographic content was being distributed over subscription-based mobile apps. One such app was allegedly developed by a firm founded by Kundra in 2019. The said firm had later sold the app to a UK-based firm. The ED will probe into the financial transaction pertaining to the case.
