New Delhi. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday said that it has arrested the notorious hawala operator Naresh Jain. Jain is suspected of making illegal transactions worth over Rs 96,000 crore in India using 600 accounts. A senior ED official told IANS that the agency has arrested Jain under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 and a Delhi court has remanded him to ED custody for 9 days.
The official said that Jain, along with his associates, facilitated illegal transactions of more than 96 thousand crore rupees in India through more than 600 bank accounts. During this period, Rs 11,800 crore was transferred to 114 foreign bank accounts. Jain was arrested following a case registered by the Economic Offenses Branch (EOW).
The official claimed that Jain allegedly ran an international syndicate of fund transfers through hawala channels through shell companies, tour-and-travel firms and formal banking networks. All fake documents were used for this.
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Investigatio n has revealed that 450 shell companies have been used to infuse funds of Rs 96 thousand crore to give more than 970 beneficiaries of accommodation entries of Rs 18,680 crore.
This Delhi-based businessman has been under the scanner of investigative agencies for some time. In 2016, he was fined Rs 1,204 crore by the Financial Investigation Agency for alleged violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
The official said that Jain had also financed the network of banned items and was also arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on 6 December 2009. After this, he is arrested by the ED. He has been in custody for over a year.
It has also been reported that the law enforcement agencies of Italy and the UAE have followed him. He has also come under suspicion of authorities in the United States and Britain.
