New Delhi, Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached immovable properties totalling Rs 9.35 crore under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a case related to controversial meat exporter Moin Akhtar Qureshi who allegedly hatched criminal conspiracy, taking illegal gratification to influence various public servant and for exercise of personal influence with public servant and abuse of official position by the accused persons, the probe agency said in a statement.
The attached assets include immovable properties held in the name of shell companies namely Evershine Hospitality Private Limited, Skyrise Infratech Private Limited, Empire Sales Private Limited, Impress Estates Private Limited and Millennium Propcon Private Limited controlled by the accused Moin Akhtar Qureshiwho was arrested by the probe agency on August 28.
The immovable properties are located at Delhi, Rajasthan, Dehradun and Goa. The attached properties include a farmhouse at Chhatarpur, Delhi and an Old Fort in District Bikaner of Rajasthan.
The federal probe agency probe under PMLA,was initiated after the registration FIR by CBI, New Delhi under section 8, 9, 12 & 13(2) read with 13(i) (d) of Prevention of Corruption Act read with 120 B IPC against Moin Akhtar Qureshi of AMQ Group of Companies, his employee Aditya Sharma, Pradeep Koneru of Timex Group of companies, and former CBI director AP Singh and other unknown persons & public servants.
The ED’s probe revealed that Moin Akhtar Qureshi was in touch with senior officers of CBI. He would collect money from different individuals either directly or through his agents such as Sathish Babu Sana to influence the cases being investigated by CBI.
“The ‘proceeds of crime’ used to be laundered through various means such as expenditure abroad by Moin Akhtar Qureshi, his wife and their family members using money send through Hawala or expenditure on behalf of seniors officers”, the probe agency said.
Other way of laundering was investment in properties, a major part of which used to be paid in cash. Investigation till date revealed collection of such proof of case (POC) to the tune of Rs 12.69 crore out of which Rs 3.34 crore was already attached vide PAO dated September 13, 2017.
Since remaining amount has either dissipated due to expenditure or cannot be trailed due to cash transactions, properties having equivalent value of Rs 9.35 crore have been attached. Further investigation is under progress, the ED said in its statement.