New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said it has filed a chargesheet at a special Bengaluru court against several individuals — Fairoz Khan, Tabrej Pasha, Abdul Dastagir, Syed Mudasir Fairoz Khan and Syed Muthahir, and two firms — Ajmera Group (represented by Pasha and Dastagir), and MF Enterprises (represented by Muthaheer), for allegedly cheating the people by collecting around Rs 200 crore from them.
The ED said that that the special court has taken the cognizance of the matter.
An ED official said that the accused by committing the criminal activities had derived proceeds of crime, and have directly indulged in the process of its possession, acquisition and projecting or claiming it as untainted property, and are guilty of the offence of money laundering.
The ED initiated money laundering investigation on the basis of an FIR filed at Jayanagar police station of Karnataka under various sections of IPC.
After conducting the investigation, the Karnataka Police filed a chargesheet in the matter in 2019.
A supplementary chargesheet was also filed by the local police in the matter.
The ED learnt in the investigation that Pasha and Dastagir opened the said partnership firm Ajmera Group and accepted deposits from the general public without obtaining any license from the respective authorities, i.e. SEBI, RBI and without registering the business entity as NBFC.
“With a fraudulent intention to cheat the common public, Ajmera Group illegally collected funds from numerous investors to the tune of Rs 2,56,06,90,338 with a promise of an exorbitant rate of interest on the investments and returned an amount of Rs 1,83,97,04,264.
“However, it failed to return the amount of Rs 72,09,86,074 to the investors and thus cheated the common public. The partners of Ajmera Group and others siphoned off and diverted money of the investors for their personal gains and for the gain of their accomplices and thereby generated proceeds of crime and laundered by way of acquiring movable and immovable properties from the said proceeds of crime,” the ED said.
Earlier in the case, movable and immovable properties worth Rs 8.41 crore were attached.
–IANS