ED suspects politicians' money involved in 'convert cash-to-gold' Pushpak Bullion case

For the last two days, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been trying to interrogate Chandrakant Patel of Pushpak Bullion Private Ltd to reveal the real names of those individuals, who had deposited unaccounted money to the tune of Rs 84.5 crore in cash and later got that converted into gold. But the investigating agency has found no success so far.

Patel is becoming a tough nut to break for ED officials as he has been arrested for money laundering in the post-demonetisation period. Patel has been arrested under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

During November-December 2016, huge cash deposits amounting to Rs 84.5 crore were deposited in two shell companies i.e. Pihu Gold and Satnam Jewels. Later, the funds were transferred in the account of Pushpak Bullion in order to purchase 258 kilogram of gold. Subsequently, the yellow metal was given back to both companies which got sold in Mumbai bullion market.

Directors of both shell companies (sub-traders) were bogus. "Both companies were managed by Patel and one of the directors in these companies was his employee", a source said.

ED officials are not "ruling out" that the unaccounted money and the real beneficiaries of converting black money into white could be "politicians".

Interestingly, soon after Patel's arrest, Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam called a press conference, alleging that the bullion trader was having business links with Shiv Sena Minister Ravindra Waikar and demanded a probe into the matter.

Nirupam alleged that Patel owned a petrol pump called Pushpak in Waikar's constituency and that they had joint investments in several businesses.

However, Waikar hit back, saying, "Whatever transaction I had with Chandu Bhai (alias Patel) is mentioned in my income tax returns and election affidavit in 2014. I have nothing to hide."

Sources within the agency told India Today, "Earlier, Nirupam himself was trying to own that petrol pump, but failed. And now he is levelling allegations against Waikar."

The investigating agency does not rule out "involvement of politicians" in this case and therefore, a thorough probe is taking place.

WHAT IS THE CASE?

Pushpak Bullion has been declared as an NPA account and defaulter by the Union Bank of India to the tune of Rs 200 crores, approximately.

Last year, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered a corruption case against two bank officials and three traders for suspicious deposits of demonetised currency worth Rs 84.5 crore into bank accounts of two shell companies at Zaveri Bazaar in two instalments.

Searches were conducted at 12 premises of five accused, namely Rakesh Patel of Pihu Gold, Mayur Chawla of Satnam Jewellers, Amit Sampat of Pushpak Bullion and two bank officials of the Union Bank of India (UBI), and recovered "indiscriminating documents" with documents and fake deposit vouchers.

As of now, the ED does not rule out a few more arrests in this case, including those of bankers.