ED attaches assets worth over 21 crore in hawala case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday said it has attached flats and land belonging to alleged hawala dealer Naresh Jain, worth more than Rs 21 crore, as part of a money laundering investigation against him.
A total of five immovable properties located in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, Solan in Himachal Pradesh and in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar have been seized after a provisional order was issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the federal agency said in a statement. The total value of these assets is Rs 21.31 crore, it said.
“Naresh Jain and others conducted international and domestic hawala operation of providing accommodation entries to co-conspirators i.e. the beneficiaries in lieu of his commission,” the agency charged. “For this purpose, Naresh Jain along with his accomplices, confidants, employees and others established structure of shell (bogus) entities by incorporating companies or forming other business entities like firm or individual proprietorship,” the ED charged.