How this ex-Cong MLA laundered money at the time of demonetisation

New Delhi, July 6: The Enforcement Directorate has accused a former Congress MLA, Rajesh Jain of making illegal money transactions of nearly Rs 8 crore and using fake bank accounts at the time of demonetisation.

This is the second supplementary chargesheet filed in the money laundering case against advocate Rohit Tandon, who was granted bail by the Delhi High Court on May 10. The chargesheet besides Jain also names two businessmen, Subhash Chandra Gupta and Sathish Kumar.

The ED says that the trio directly attempted to indulge and knowingly assisted in laundering the illegitimate demonetised currency allegedly belonging to Tandon and the commission was derived and obtained for this conversion through the use of shell firms.

The prosecuting agency has sought initiation of proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 against all the accused.

Rajesh Jain was arrested by the Delhi police last year for allegedly making illegal transactions following the notes ban and helping in exchange of demonetised notes worth Rs 4.5 crore.

The accused who have been chargesheeted by the ED are Tandon, Ashish Kumar, R K Goel, Dinesh Bhola, Kamal Jain, Yogesh Mittal, R C Sharma, Rajesh Jain, Satish Kumar and S C Gupta.

The ED says that Jain was an associate of Mittal who went to collect the demonetised currency belonging to Tandon from his premises in Chhatarpur on November 15 2016.

Jain on the other hand opened two firms- Jai Jinendra Sales and Sri Niwas Sales with Mittal's help. These firms were used to transfer money from four bank accounts under Mittal's instructions, the ED also says.

Mittal was arrested by the ED in June last year for allegedly "picking up demonetised cash" belonging to Tandon during November 14-19, 2016 and depositing it in various bank accounts of shell companies.

It was found that demonetised currency worth Rs 4.5 crore was deposited in Jain's two bank accounts last year and he had charged a commission for getting it deposited in his account.

All those named in the charge sheet have been accused of allegedly conspiring to exchange the demonetised notes of denominations Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 for new notes and to earn a huge profit by illegal means.

On December 10 2016, Rs 13.5 crore was seized from a law firm in Delhi's Greater Kailash-1 area. It was found that Rs 2.6 crore was in new currency. The raid was conducted on the T&T law firm owned by Tandon.