ED to push for letter rogatory to probe Hong Kong A/Cs

The central agencies have arrested six persons in the case involving alleged laundering of black money to the tune of Rs. 6000 crore at a branch of Bank of Baroda. Four of the arrests were made by the Enforcement Directorate and two by the Central Bureau of Investigation, sources said. Those arrested by the CBI are branch head Suresh Kumar Garg and <g data-gr-id="37">Jainis</g> Dubey, the foreign exchange head, sources said.

The persons arrested by the Enforcement directorate include Kamal Kalra, Chandan Bhatia, Gurucharan Singh and Sanjay Aggarwal, who were allegedly involved in the transaction of 15 accounts. Kalra allegedly handled the business for a dozen companies. According to officers, during his questioning, he said he worked in the Forex Department of HDFC bank and used to get a commission. During his interrogation, Bhatia allegedly said he worked with Gurucharan Singh and both of them exported finished goods.

On the other hand, the Enforcement Directorate is going to move the special court  to issue a letter rogatory to investigate all the correspondent accounts in Hong Kong.

“So far we have got the information of eight fake companies which are operating from Hong Kong,” sources told Millennium Post. It was suspected that each one of these companies was taking draw-back benefits by using multiple fake accounts. ED will investigate all those companies, their accounts, banking transactions, company directors and beneficiary owners, sources further added.

Sources confirmed to Millennium Post that they are going to appeal to the special court to issue a formal letter to investigate all the companies and their accounts in Hong Kong by this week. A letter rogatory is a formal request from a court to a foreign court for judicial assistance. The most common remedies sought by letters rogatory are service of process and taking of evidence.

In a joint operation, the CBI and ED on Saturday conducted searches at various locations associated with Bank of Baroda (BoB) and its officials in connection with alleged illegal transfer of over Rs 6,000 crore through the banking channels to Hong Kong. Sources in the two agencies said money was being transferred through 59 accounts at the bank’s Ashok Vihar was disguised as payments for imports.

A search revealed that addresses given by at least 50 companies for bank records were fake. ED sources said that the agency has already registered a case against certain operators under the stringent sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Searches were conducted by joint team of ED and CBI at three premises including the Bank of Baroda, Ashok Vihar Branch in Delhi apart from residences of BoB AGM SK Garg and <g data-gr-id="44">Jainish</g> Dubey, who is a foreign exchange officer with the bank.

Sources further said that that 59 current account holders and unknown bank officials conspired to send overseas remittances, mostly to Hong Kong, of foreign exchange worth approximately Rs 6,000 crore in illegal & irregular manner in violation of established banking norms.