Parasmal Lodha in ED net: TN politicians under scanner

Investigators are hot on the trail of politicians from Tamil Nadu to find out if they have parked crores of rupees abroad with the help of Lodha

The law is likely to catch up to many in Tamil Nadu soon with the Enforcement Directorate getting set to take Parasmal Lodha to the state. Lodha was arrested in December by the ED after it was found that he had allegedly helped mining baron Sekhar Reddy convert demonetised notes in large quantity.

Lodha was arrested in Mumbai and later taken to New Delhi where he is currently lodged in a jail. The ED had sought a transit remand to take him to Chennai for further investigations. The court had granted the transit remand and the cases relating to Lodha's Tamil Nadu links will be transferred to a court in Chennai.

When Lodha's name figured earlier:

The ED suspects that Lodha's Chennai links need to be probed to get a larger idea about the alleged modus oprandi. He is currently being investigated for converting Rs 25 crore in demonetised notes into new currency. It is alleged that he did this for Reddy and a Delhi-based lawyer.

While this would be one part of the probe, the ED would also be revisiting an earlier case in which Lodha was involved. ED officials say that they are taking one thing at a time.

"The earlier case relating to Tamil Nadu too is under our watch and we suspect that it is all inter-linked," an official who did not want to be named informed OneIndia.

The older case goes back to an IT raid that was conducted in April 2016. It was election time and a raid had been conducted on a Karur, Tamil Nadu based-businessman C P Anbunathan. The laptop, cellphone and other documents that were seized during the raid revealed several big names which included politicians from Tamil Nadu.

Politicians under scanner:

The ED, CBI and the IT department have under their radar at least five politicians and nearly 20 Indian Police Service and Indian Administrative Service officers, both serving and retired. Investigators are trying to find out the money trail that led to the purchase of commercial building at Dera in Dubai. It is suspected that this building worth Rs 1,700 crore was purchased for a politician in Tamil Nadu.

During the raid at Anbunathan's residence, the IT sleuths seized Rs 4.8 crore in cash apart from other incriminating documents. It is alleged that Anbunathan along with Lodha had parked money to the tune of several thousand crores abroad. Investigators are looking into whether this money was parked for politicians.

Scams galore

Further the probe also revealed that a chunk of the money was from the proceeds of the controversial coal imports. A separate investigation had been conducted into this case and it officers had even arrested Manoj Kumar Garg, one of the kingpins in the case.

An analysis of the documents also went on to show that Anbunathan was allegedly connected to Garg and together they had invested in the commercial building in Dubai. Further investments in a bank at Bangkok is also under the scanner of investigators.
Officials say that the case is about laundering money for politicians.

"There appears to be a clear modus operandi in the manner in which it was done. The three persons -- Lodha, Anbunathan and Reddy will be able to give more details about this, officials point out. It is alleged that Lodha made several visits to Tamil Nadu post 2011 and he may have introduced Anbunathan to some of the big-wigs.

OneIndia News