ED attaches Rs 2.85 crore assets of businessman, lawyer

New Delhi, July 7 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday said that it has attached movable assets worth Rs 2.85 crore of businessman Paras Mal Lodha and lawyer Rohit Tandon as part of its money laundering probe in the wake of demonetisation.

"ED has issued second provisional attachment order, attaching movable properties worth Rs 2.85 crore in Paras Mal Lodha in demonetised currency conversion case," the financial investigative agency said.

According to the ED, it has attached movable properties worth Rs 1.85 crore of Tandon and Rs one crore of Lodha in the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Earlier, the agency had attached movable and immovable properties worth Rs 6.84 crore of Lodha, Tandon and others in the case.

The agency had on December 29 last year 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.

While questioning Tandon, the ED officials learnt that he took 62-year-old Lodha's help to convert his high-value scrapped notes worth over Rs 2.6 crore into new currency. Lodha has interests in real estate and mining, and was intercepted at the Mumbai airport while he was trying to flee to Malaysia.

Cash amounting to Rs 13.65 crore, including Rs 2.6 crore in new currency notes, was seized from Tandon's office in south Delhi's Greater Kailash-I during a raid 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.