Money laundering case: ED searches premises linked to K D Singh
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) searched the residence and offices associated with TMC Rajya Sabha MP K D Singh in Chandigarh and Delhi on Thursday. Agency sources said the searches — which came hours after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met Home Minister Amit Shah — were conducted in connection with a money-laundering case involving a company owned by Singh. The firm allegedly swindled Rs 1,9000000000 of investors’ money through a ponzi scheme. In January this year, the ED had attached assets worth more than Rs 2390000000 belonging to Singh and his firm. The ED probe is associated with financial transactions of Singh’s firm Alchemist Infra Realty Limited (AIRL), which was earlier prosecuted by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for duping investors through the scheme. The ED had earlier attached assets “situated at various places like Chandigarh, Panchkula, Derabassi, SAS Nagar (Punjab), Shimla” belonging to the company apart from accounts in HDFC Bank. The central probe agency had last year summoned the Member of Parliament, now sidelined in the Trinamool Congress (TMC), as part of these investigations. While Singh had resigned as chairman of the Alchemist group in 2012, his Rajya Sabha profile mentions him as Chairman Emeritus and founder of the business group. The ED’s probe against Singh and Ms Alchemist Infra Realty Limited dates back to September 2016, when it filed a criminal case under the PMLA taking cognizance of a chargesheet filed against the company, its directors and others by SEBI. “Investigation revealed that the proceeds of crime generated by Alchemist Infra Realty Limited were laundered through the web of companies. Investigations also revealed that the funds mobilised by the firm from various investors were never utilised for the purpose for which they were collected and the same were transferred to bank accounts of other group companies which were mainly paper companies from where they were systematically siphoned off by the accused and used to purchase properties at various locations in the country,” the ED said in a statement earlier.