ED teams visited at least 110 locations across 17 states.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted country-wide searches at over 100 locations on Saturday as part of its major crackdown on 500 shell companies suspected to be generating huge amounts of black money.
The raid operations across 17 states began early morning with ED sleuths swooping down at market places, business centres, residential premises and even houses put up on rent to hunt down the allegedly dubious and suspicious firms which the agency believes are the "back bone" of black money in the country.
By the last update, ED teams had visited at least 110 locations in cities like Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Panaji, Kochi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Lucknow, Patna, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Srinagar, Indore and some in Haryana.
The agency said it searched a Mumbai-based operator who was running 700 shell companies with 20 dummy directors and had "converted Rs 46.7 crore for Chaggan Bhujbal", the jailed ex-Maharashtra deputy chief minister.
The central probe agency, which has a total strength of about 800 officers and staff at its various regional and zonal offices in the country, was virtually out on the field to undertake one of the biggest operations in the country against shell firms. The drive was part of a recent PMO directive to check the illegal operations of these companies.
"The operations are based on various investigations done by the agency and some others as part of their anti-black money crackdown charter," ED Director Karnal Singh told PTI. He said the operations were still on.
ED teams also visited those who are allegedly connected to some of the most prominent corruption and black money cases being probed in the country at present. The agency said it recovered documents and raided those dubious firms which were "used in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam to launder proceeds of crime." It said the action was carried out against those operators allegedly used by ex-Noida Chief Engineer Yadav Singh "to convert his illegal wealth" .
The agency also searched those companies allegedly related to YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Rajeshwar Exports and others to unearth their modus operandi. Reddy is facing separate CBI and ED probes in cases of alleged disproportionate assets, corruption and money laundering.
The ED is one of the members of a recently constituted central Special Task Force (STF) on shell firms that is co-chaired by the Revenue and Corporate Affairs Secretaries. The ED action is being carried out under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and officials added some arrests and new FIRs could be made once the operations end. The agency has also recently attached assets worth crores of such firms in the last over a week's time.
Shell companies are defined as those firms which are set up by nominal paid-up capital, high reserves and surplus on account of receipt of high share premium, investment in unlisted companies, no dividend income or high cash in hand. Such firms are also characterised by having private companies as majority shareholders, low turnover and operating income, nominal expenses, nominal statutory payments and stock in trade and minimum fixed asset.
In Hyderabad
The ED said it had attached assets worth Rs 3.04 crore of a city-based firm in a case related to multi-level-marketing. The case, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, was initiated against Vishwajyoti Realtors Pvt Ltd here after the city police registered an FIR for cheating and filed a charge sheet, the ED said. The agency has also invoked the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978, against the firm.
In Mumbai
ED sleuths were left flummoxed when they discovered a fake 'Interpol agent' ID card from a person in Mumbai whom they searched as part of a country-wide action against shell firms. The agency recovered the ID from the laptop of the person with the official logo of the international police organisation crudely copied with markings that read "Interpol International Police".
It said the fake photographic ID was made in the name of one Chetan Shah with his details being given as "Special Agent, anti-terrorism division, Department of Investigations". On the reverse side of the ID, the agency found a thumb impression and personal details of the person like date of birth, height, hair colour, weight, blood group and few vague signatures. They said the agency will investigate as to how the fake ID was made and whether it was used to con or cheat anyone by wrongly depicting the person as an Interpol official.
ED sleuths have also picked up certain other documents from the same premises for further probe, they said.
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