New Delhi [India], January 17 (ANI): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested the fifth accused, Jaspreet Singh Bagga in the Birfa IT case that involves the illegal sending of foreign remittances worth Rs 4,817 crore against bogus and forged invoices for making compensatory payments for under invoiced imports made from China and Hong Kong.
ED’s Delhi unit arrested Jaspreet under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. He was produced before the Special Court (PMLA), Dwarka, which has remanded the accused to one day ED custody till tomorrow.
The four accused arrested earlier namely: Manideep Mago, Sanjay Sethi, Mayank Dang and Tushar Dang were arrested by the ED.
ED said that Jaspreet is in the business of opticals and is a close associate of Sanjay Sethi and Mayank Dang and is a key member of the syndicate involved in under-invoiced imports and sending compensatory payments through Hawala Channels.
“Jaspreet’s shop was an epicentre of cash collection and acted as a hub for unaccounted cash collection from numerous importers. He used to carry daily cash collection to his home at Kirti Nagar which was further collected by cash handlers of Manideep Mago and was eventually remitted illegally abroad through companies of Manideep Mago and Sanjay Sethi using fake and forged invoices,” said the ED.
The investigation revealed that Jaspreet handled around Rs 250 crore of cash for Manideep Mago and Sanjay Sethi. “This cash was layered through various bank accounts operated by the accused persons before being remitted abroad to make compensatory payments to Chinese exporters.”
ED initiated an investigation into the financial affairs of Birfa IT based on the information that this entity had sold huge amount of crypto assets and encashed Rs 1,858 crore from an Indian crypto-exchange.
“Enquiries revealed that it had not bought any crypto assets in India. Such a situation indicated a dangerous scenario of International Hawala using crypto transactions,” said the ED in a statement.
Therefore, the agency said, a search under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) conducted in this case, revealed evidences that Manideep Mago has been making illegal foreign remittances using fake and forged documents.
“On the basis of findings unearthed during the search, a complaint was made by ED to Crime Branch, Delhi and an FIR under various section of IPC,1860 was registered. Since the FIR contained Scheduled offences, the case was taken up for detailed investigation under PMLA by ED.” (ANI)
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