The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has told a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Monday while seeking actor and businessman Sachiin Joshi’s custody for interrogation that his firms and he had helped promoters of Omkar Group divert at least Rs 87 crore.
The agency told the court that Joshi and his firms received funds from companies of Omkar Group, which were shown as investment and for providing services. Though Joshi told the ED during questioning that Rs 48 crore was invested for development of a land near Pune, it found that no definite agreement was made in this regard which the agency called surprising.
The ED said that the money was not used for the stated purpose of investment and Joshi had parked the funds on behalf of Omkar Group.
The agency further said that Joshi had raised 22 invoices for rendering services such as rehabilitation and settlement with slum dwellers of SRA projects of Omkar Group, but admitted to it that no actual work was done by him. Joshi explained to the agency that he had allowed Omkar Group to use his name and brand name to settle with slum dwellers. This, the ED, told court was far-fetched as neither he nor his companies had done any slum rehabilitation work earlier.
Advocates Subhash Jadhav and Subodh Desai appearing for Joshi opposed his custodial interrogation. The court gave the ED Joshi’s custody till 18 February, when he will be produced again before the court.
Earlier, Omkar group directors Babulal Varma and Kamal Kishore Gupta were arrested in the case and are presently in judicial custody.