Demonetisation: ED arrests Delhi lawyer Rohit Tandon for alleged money laundering

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on late Wednesday night arrested Delhi-based lawyer Rohit Tandon in connection with a money laundering case registered after an announcement regarding demonetisation was made on November 8.

Tandon, who was being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate for the last few days, will be produced before a court today.

On December 10, during searches at a law firm in Greater Kailash in south Delhi, a Crime Branch team had seized Rs 13.65 crore, including Rs 2.60 crore in new notes. The law firm is owned by Tandon.

The lawyer had recently declared unaccounted income worth over Rs 125 crore after searches were carried out against him.

The ED suspects Tandon was allegedly instrumental in the illegal conversion of demonetised currency worth about Rs 60 crore in purported connivance with Kolkata-based businessman Paras Mal Lodha and arrested Kotak Bank manager in Delhi Ashish Kumar.

With Tandon's arrest, the investigative agencies have now nabbed some of the major players of the two high-profile black money rackets unearthed post the note ban.

The Financial Express had on Wednesday cited ED sources as saying that the owner of T&T law firm, during a probe, had revealed that Kotak Mahindra bank manager Ashish Kumar had received Rs 51 crore from him.

The sources added that Kumar had prepared drafts of Rs 38 crore on fictitious amounts which were later cancelled by the Income Tax department. The manager of the bank's branch in Kasturba Gandhi Marg in central Delhi had received Rs 13 crore as conversion money.

Ashish was arrested under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on December 27 night.

In the similar case, the ED had on December 21 arrested hawala trader Paras Mal Lodha for converting over Rs 25 crore demonetised notes linked to industrialist J Sekhar Reddy and lawyer Rohit Tandon into the new currency.

Lodha, a leading businessman with interests in real estate and mining, was intercepted by a team of ED sleuths at the Mumbai airport while he was trying to flee to Malaysia.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last week arrested Reddy, a former Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam Board Member, and two others from Chennai for money laundering after the Income Tax department seized 177 kg of gold, Rs 96 crore in old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes and Rs 34 crore in new currency from their premises.

Sources had said that Reddy had executed a lot of work for the Tamil Nadu government,

In connection with the case, IT officials raided at 12 locations, including the house of Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao.

(With Agency inputs)