Chandigarh court allows DRI to examine accused in jail

A local court in Chandigarh has allowed a team of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Ahmedabad, to examine Punit Kumar, an accused in a multi-crore trade-based money laundering (TBML) case.

Punit Kumar is lodged in Model Jail, Burail, Chandigarh. The court has directed the Jail Superintendent to make necessary arrangements for his examination for three days as per rules. He has also been directed to provide appropriate space for the DRI team on the jail premises.

The court has passed the order on an application filed by DRI, Ahmedabad, through Rajan Malhotra, Special Public Prosecutor for DRI. Malhotra told the court that the DRI is investigating a case registered under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962.

The investigation in the case has indicated that goods with miscellaneous description were imported in the name of various companies/traders with extremely high-declared import value at SEZ, Mundra, in the warehouse of M/s Kerry Indev Logistics Private Limited and were subsequently re-exported as such.

The sole purpose of these fraudulent imports/exports was to siphon off forex out of India with majority of the firms created solely for sending illegal remittance abroad in guise of payment against imports.

In the case, a total of 49 Importer-Exporter Codes (IEC) of importer-exporter firms were used by various persons, wherein imported goods were being supplied by Hong Kong-based companies and the items declared in the import documents were not real items having any market application or/and commercial value but fake/ fancy product names chosen to inflate the values in import documents with the sole motive of sending illegal remittance abroad through banking channels, a modus classically described as trade-based money laundering (TBML).

The DRI said that eight to 10 firms involved in the investigation were being managed by accused Ashish Kakkar and Punit Kumar. Both of them were arrested by cyber crime police station, Chandigarh, in connection with an FIR registered under Sections 384, 420, 468, 471, 509, 120-B IPC and 66(D), 67 IT Act and 14 of Foreigner Act. The FIR was registered for cheating people through a loan app.

India