Magnitude of case involving Mumbai, Hyderabad and New Delhi is said to be reason.
The investigation into the multi-crore financial fraud, notoriously known as ‘Rupal Panchal IPO scam’, has been transferred to the headquarters of Enforcement Directorate (ED) in New Delhi. Till now, it was being probed — under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) — by the ED’s zonal office in Ahmedabad.
The scam involves an Ahmedabad-based leading language daily.
The reason behind the transfer of the probe is said to be the magnitude of the case which has links right from Ahmedabad to Mumbai, Hyderabad and New Delhi.
The case is also referred as the biggest IPO scam in the country so far. ED officials in Ahmedabad said that their Delhi counterparts chose to investigate the case because “the scale of the fraud is large”.
“A new intelligence wing set up recently in the agency has taken over this case. Besides, the CBI had already filed the charge-sheet, while ED-Ahmedabad has started attaching properties involving the scamsters,” said an official.
The decision to transfer the case was taken last week. Incidentally, the investigating officer (IO) in this case had been transferred before the order for transfer of the case came. So far, the ED officials have attached assets worth over Rs100 crore from investors, stock brokers and corporate houses under PMLA.
Investigations had revealed that 3.91 lakh shares of IDFC were cornered fraudulently through bogus demat and bank accounts by Dipak J Panchal, Rupal Panchal and Parag P Jhaveri from the portion of shares reserved for retail investors. These shares had travelled to the demat account of Lok Prakashan Ltd and its MD through the city-based financier & realtor Dhiren Vora. The scam took place in 2003.
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