Breaking news: ED unearths links between Sudhakar Shetty and Congress leaders in Iqbal Mirchi money laundering case

In a breaking news development, several incriminating documents have been recovered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) during the raid on Sahana Group chairman Sudhakar Reddy's residence and office in connection with the alleged money laundering investigation against gangster Iqbal Mirchi. The documents reveal details of monetary transactions between Sudhakar Reddy and several politicians including those belonging to the Congress.

The politicians include a former Haryana minister and some ex-ministers belonging to Maharashtra Congress who were allegedly part of the financial dealings with Shetty. According to the ED investigations, Sudhakar Shetty had reportedly spent several crores during the marriage of a relative of a former Haryana chief minister. Apart from this, another big transaction which is being probed is about a land deal between Shetty and a senior politician in Mumbai's Juhu area.

ED officials have unravelled details which show that Shetty gave his helicopters to the leaders for free in lieu of the alleged transactions and benefits.

Shetty has already been grilled by the ED sleuths over the alleged financial transactions but his answers have not been satisfactory. ED officials plan to question Shetty about the dealing with the politicals leaders yet again.

During the raid on Shetty's residence and office on Thursday (January 30, 2020), the ED recovered several bank account statements, documents related to his companies, pen drives and computer hard disks. The raid also unearthed details related to more than 20 shell companies being run by Shetty.

These companies are reported to be linked to the underworld, say ED officials.

The ED had on January 27, 2020, arrested non-banking financial company Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL) chairman and managing director Kapil Wadhawan for his alleged role in the money laundering case related to Iqbal Mirchi. The arrest was made as the ED is investigating a company Sunblink Real Estate, linked to Iqbal Mirchi, which received a loan of Rs 2186 crore from Kapil Wadhawan's DHFL.

Iqbal Mirchi died on August 14, 2013, in London.