A special PMLA court sentenced four persons, including two Malaysians, and a firm to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for money laundering linked to illegal possession of narcotic drugs, the Enforcement Directorate said on Wednesday.
The court of special judge AC Joshi convicted Kirit Shah, Jagdish Vaidya, Gunasekaran Pillai, Ravindran Karapaya and Vadodara-based Sakha Organics under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Pillai and Karapaya are Malaysian nationals.
In a statement, ED said the court had ordered handing over of confiscated assets, worth Rs71 lakh, to the Centre.
The agency had filed a case against the accused under charges of money laundering, after taking cognisance of a complaint of Narcotics Control Bureau that had seized methamphetamine from the four accused. The psychotropic substance was recovered from Sakha Organics' factory.
The ED said its investigation found that Shah had "availed a loan of Rs66.70 lakh from Gujarat State Finance Corporation by way of mortgaging the factory premises of Sakha Organics".
"Major repayments were done in 2008 by procuring demand drafts from various banks/persons in lieu of cash paid to them. During the same period, another accused, Xie Jing Feng (Canadian national), had paid Rs4 crore to Shah for production and manufacture of methamphetamine," it said.
ED said the special judge had ordered a separate trial against Feng, who is absconding, and against whom extradition proceedings were going on with Hong Kong as he was reported to be in jail there.
THE ORDERS
In a statement, ED said the court had ordered handing over of confiscated assets, worth Rs71 lakh, to the Centre. It said that the special judge had ordered a separate trial against Feng, who is absconding.
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