New Delhi: A special money laundering court here has ordered attachment of over a lakh euro and US dollar currencies belonging to alleged kingpin of the kidney scam, Amit Kumar, as part of a criminal funds probe against him.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had recently frozen the currencies as it "prima facie believed that these currencies possessed by Amit Kumar were from out of the moneys he had received from foreign recipients for illegal transplantation of kidney".
The agency has termed this cash as "proceeds of crime" derived from the illegal kidney trade and a crime under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The cash which includes 276 Euro notes of denomination 500 each, 25 Euros of 200 denomination each, 20 Euros of 100 value each and 239 United States Dollar (USD)-- was recovered and seized from Kumar by CBI in February 2008 at Indira Gandhi International Airport here.
The court of Adjudicating Authority of the PMLA, under its Chairman K Raamamoorthy, upheld the ED`s action of attachment of currencies which was done in April this year.
The court is the judicial body to decide on stringent action done by the agency under PMLA.
The special court also rejected Kumar`s prayer for release of these foreign currencies on the basis of his acquittal on charges upon him under certain sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The ED is probing the money laundering criminality in this case on the basis of the CBI FIR in the scam.
The agency was also successful in recently attaching a posh bungalow worth over Rs 4 crore of Kumar in Melbourne in Australia under the same offences.
Kumar was brought from Nepal and arrested by CBI here on February 7, 2008.
