ENFORCEMENT Directorate (ED), on Friday, conducted searches at 17 properties and residential premises of top businessmen dealing in real estate, steel and coal in the city. These include steel trader Pankaj Mehadia, Rammu alias Ramdev Agrawal, Director of Sandesh Infrastructure Pvt Ltd and others. The searches were being conducted by ED officers after initiating an inquiry against them in a money laundering case.

 

It is learnt that Sanjay Agrawal, Suresh Bajoria, Kailash Agrawal, Vinod Garg (Mumbai) and Chartered Accountant Anil Parakh, were also allegedly on the ED’s radar. The searches were being conducted by teams of ED officers from Nagpur, Mumbai and Delhi. One of the teams landed at Rammu Agrawal’s Ramdaspeth residence and started the search operation in the morning. Another team conducted simultaneous searches at his offices of Sandesh City Group and Sandesh Infrastructure Pvt Ltd. Sources said ED officers previously had allegedly stumbled upon transactions worth Rs 875 crore in the accounts of five companies of Pankaj Mehadia and his associates while conducting an inquiry under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. About 450 entries were allegedly of dubious companies to turn black money into white. Earlier also, steel trader Pankaj Mehadia was arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Nagpur Police in the Rs 8.16 crore investment fraud. Since then, he and his associates were on ED’s radar.

 

Pankaj Mehadia, a resident of New Ramdaspeth, Lokesh Santosh Jain, a resident of Sadar, Kartik Santosh Jain, a resident of Golchha Marg, Balmukund Lalchand Keyal, a resident of Deshpande Layout and Premlata Mehadia, a resident of Sadar were booked by the EOW following a complaint lodged by Ashok Purushottam Agarwal (60), a resident of Ramdaspeth. In 2017, the accused tricked Ashok Agarwal into investing in three of their firms by promising high returns. Ashok Agarwal’s three relatives also invested huge amounts in the firms operated by the accused. However, the accused did not return the money after accepting investment of Rs 28,16,08,518. After the EOW conducted inquiries, an FIR was registered against Pankaj Mehadia and others at Sitabuldi Police Station under Sections 420, 406, 409, 120 (B) and MPED Act.

 

Sources said that several top businessmen and industrialists had fallen into the trap of prime accused Pankaj Mehadia and most of them had invested in cash. Sources informed that ED officers were tracking the assets derived by the suspects from proceeds of crime under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. It is leant that the ED teams seized several incriminating documents and electronic evidence from the offices and residential premises of the suspects during the searches in the city and three places in Mumbai.