ED arrests Delhi lawyer Rohit Tandon involved in money laundering case

Delhi-based lawyer Rohit Tandon was arrested on Thursday, days after huge amount of unaccounted money was found in his office

New Delhi, Dec 29: The Enforcement Directorate has arrested controversial lawyer Rohit Tandon in the national capital in connection with a money laundering probe in a case of seizure of Rs 13.6 crore after police raided a law firm premises as part of an anti-black money operation post demonetisation.

Officials said Tandon, who was being questioned by the ED for the last few days, was placed under arrest late last night under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and will be produced in a court for further custody.

The agency 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.

While Reddy has been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation from Chennai, Lodha and Kumar have already been arrested by the ED apart from two others in Chennai. The agency has been questioning Lodha and Tandon in Delhi and even brought both of them face-to-face.

Sources claimed that as the required information was not coming forth from Tandon, he had to be taken into custody. "Tandon is required for custodial interrogation," they said.

Tandon's case pertains to an operation of Delhi Police's Crime Branch and the Income Tax department earlier this month when the agencies had seized Rs 13.6 crore, of which Rs 2.6 crore was in new currency, allegedly from a law firm in Delhi that he is associated with.

The ED had booked a PMLA case against him based on the police First Information Report. The lawyer was earlier separately searched by the tax department where it was said that he declared undisclosed income worth over Rs 125 crore to the taxman. The two cases involving Tandon and Reddy are being probed by at least four lead agencies of the country including the ED, Income Tax department, CBI and Delhi Police.

The Reddy case pertains to Chennai where the I-T department has made the biggest detection of unaccounted income of over Rs 142 crore.

PTI