A Delhi Court on Monday granted one more day Enforcement Directorate (ED) remand of Deepak Ramnani, co-accused in connection with a Rs 200 crore money laundering case involving conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar.
Deepak Ramnani was arrested by ED on October 5, 2021, and was continuously in ED custody.
The Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh on Monday while extending remand of the accused said, after perusing the record, I find that to establish the money trail of the proceeds of crime and to confront the accused with the statements of other accused, further custodial interrogation of the accused is required. Considering this, accused Deepak Ramnani is remanded to further custody of ED till 19.10.2021.
Advocate Anant Malik, Counsel for Deepak Ramnani during the hearing the further remand application of prosecution and contended that the application has been moved just to delay the proceedings.
ED while seeking further remand of the accused states that the accused has started disclosing about the transactions related to cash he collected and delivered and is now revealing the identities of various persons who were involved.
The accused has also admitted that he was in constant contact with accused Sukesh Chandrashekhar through Whatsapp calls, on whose instructions he was doing the said acts. It is further submitted that since the accused is now cooperating and disclosing the relevant material, therefore, his further custody is required to ascertain the proceeds of crime, stated Advocates Atul Tripathi and Mohammad Faraz, Special Public Prosecutors along with RK Shah Counsel for ED.
On Saturday the same court had extended the ED remand of Leena Maria Paul, Actress and wife of main accused Sukesh Chandrashekhar for a further period of 7 days noted that accused Paul was not merely beneficiary of proceeds of crime but was playing an active role in moving the POC, its projection as untainted money and was working in counsel with main accused Sukesh.
The Court also noted that money was being moved at her instructions, the trial is still unknown if the ED is not granted the custody, the money trail which is currently unknown would go cold.
The court earlier took notice that at the time of the incident, Chandrasekhar was lodged in Delhi's Rohini jail and was running an extortion racket from behind the bars.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), a financial probe agency, has recently arrested them under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the extortion racket which was being run from a Delhi jail. Two co-accused Pradeep Ramdani and Deepak Ramnani have been also arrested by the ED in case.
According to ED, during the investigation, searches were conducted at various places linked to Sukesh Chandrashekar and his associates. During the search, 16 high-end vehicles were seized under section 17 PMLA and these cars are either in the name of firms of Leena Paulose or in the name of third parties. It is further submitted that it has emerged that Sukesh knowingly created the structure for layering and transferring proceeds of crime and thus, actively participated in the process of money laundering.
Sukesh and Leena Maria Paul along with several others accused were earlier arrested by Delhi Police. The police have recently also invoked the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the case.
Delhi Police had alleged that Leena, Sukesh with others used Hawala routes, created Shell companies to park the money earned from proceeds of crime. Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) had registered an FIR against Chandrasekhar for allegedly duping the spouses of former promoters of Ranbaxy, Shivinder Singh, and Malvinder Singh, of Rs 200 crore besides ongoing investigations against him in several cases across the country.
( With inputs from ANI )
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