ED attaches Rs 41.65 crore assets of Delhi lawyer, others

New Delhi, Feb 13 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday said it has attached movable assets worth Rs 41.65 crore purchased by a Delhi-based lawyer Rohit Tandon and others by using laundered money following demonetisation.

The agency took the step under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, an ED official said.

The official, however, failed give details of other persons whose assets were also attached by the agency.

The ED on December 29 last year had arrested Tandon for allegedly converting demonetised currency worth Rs 60 crore into new notes in connivance with Delhi's Kotak Mahindra Bank manager Ashish Kumar and hawala trader Paras Mal Lodha.

The ED officials arrested Kumar on December 28, while Lodha was held on December 21 last year.

The ED sources said that Tandon had given Rs 1.5 crore as commission to Kumar, the bank manager at Kotak Mahindra Bank's Connaught Place branch, for converting his demonetised high-value currency into new currency.

While questioning Tandon, the ED officials also learnt that he took the help of Lodha, 62, a businessman with interests in real estate and mining, who was intercepted at the Mumbai airport while he was trying to flee to Malaysia, to convert his high-value demonetised notes worth over Rs 2.6 crore into new currency.

Cash amounting to Rs 13.65 crore, including Rs 2.6 crore in new currency notes, was seized from Tandon's office in Greater Kailash-I area of south Delhi during a raid conducted by the Delhi Police on December 10.

Tandon's T&T law firm and residence, before this operation, were separately searched by the Income Tax department which said that he had declared undisclosed income of over Rs 125 crore.

(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)