The Enforcement Directorate has filed a chargesheet against Mansukh Shah, the then president of Vadodara-based Sumandeep Vidyapeeth, who along with his accomplices faces allegations that he received bribes from students for enrolments in various courses and also for allowing them to appear in the examinations.
Mr. Shah’s brother-in-law Deepak Shah has also been mentioned in the chargesheet.
The ED has attached assets worth more than ₹10 crore belonging to Mr. Shah and his family members under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The probe is based on an FIR registered by the Ahmedabad Anti-Corruption Bureau against Mr. Shah and his accomplice who were allegedly caught red-handed while accepting ₹20 lakh from a student in February last year. The Bureau arrested five accused in the case.
Further investigations unearthed an alleged racket of collecting bribes from students through accused Vinod and Ashok Tailor.
The Directorate found that Mr. Shah and his relatives had shown large scale gains to the tune of ₹27.57 crore from investments in shares of several non-operational firms, including Dhyana Finstock, Trasglobe Foods and Parish Herbal. They had in fact bought shares of such companies at a very low value, amounting to just about ₹23 lakh, according to the agency.
The bribe amounts were channelled through a network of shell companies and finally the money was sent to the bank accounts of “dummy” persons, who later on bought the shares from Mr. Shah and his relatives at steep rates. It is alleged that such arrangements were made by accused Deepak Shah.