Court sends Unitech promoter Sanjay Chandra's wife, father to ED custody

A Delhi court on Tuesday sent three persons, including former Unitech group promoter Sanjay Chandra's wife Preeti Chandra and his father Ramesh Chandra, to ED custody in connection with a money-laundering case.

Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana sent Preeti Chandra to ED's custody till October 9, Ramesh Chandra to October 8, and Rajesh Malik till October 11.

The Enforcement Directorate sought seven-day custody of the accused persons for their custodial interrogation in the case.

Senior advocate P K Dubey, appearing for Preeti Chandra, opposed the remand application and submitted that she appeared before the investigating agency as and when required by the ED and that there was no requirement of custody.

Dubey added that his client had fully cooperated with the investigation and till date, nothing incriminating was recovered from any of her premises and nothing remained to be recovered or discovered at her instance.

Ramesh Chandra is the founder of Unitech Limited.

Rajesh Malik is an executive of Carnoustie Management (India) Pvt which is allegedly linked to the case

Sanjay Chandra and his brother Ajay Chandra were earlier arrested by the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi police in 2017 on the allegation of cheating home buyers.

While seeking custody on Tuesday, the ED said that during the course of the investigation, it was revealed that the promoters of Unitech Group in collusion with their associates generated proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 7638.43 Crore.

The proceeds of crime were further layered and laundered to various entities including Benami entities of Chandras' of Unitech Group, it said.

Investigation has revealed diversion of homebuyer/loan/investor funds of Rs 2345 crore to foreign countries namely Cayman Island, Cyprus, Isle of Man, Mauritius, UK, USA, Jersey, and Singapore, it claimed.

Taking into consideration the intrusive action of Accused attempted to flee outside India but she could not as she was intercepted (on 10.03.2021) at Delhi Airport in pursuance to Look Out Circular issued by ED.

Thereafter, the accused was examined on March 10, 2021, in ED and it was revealed that the accused had citizenship of Republic on Dominica that she had acquired on May 28, 2018.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Dominica Republic is a tax haven as well as a safe place of hiding for most global fugitive economic offenders including Mehul Choksi, it claimed.

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