ED arrests Naresh Jain, an international hawala operator; gets 9 day remand for custodial interrogation

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Naresh Jain under the provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 and has secured 09 days custodial remand from the Ld. ASJ, Rohini (North-West), Delhi. Naresh Jain has been arrested by ED in connection with ongoing PMLA investigation into his role in money laundering and international Hawala transactions.

ED initiated Investigation under PMLA on the bassis of FIR registered by EOW, Delhi Police against Naresh Jain and others under Section 419, 420, 467, 468, 471, 120 B of IPC. investigation conducted so far by this Directorate has revealed that Naresh Jain along with his accomplices hatched a criminal conspiracy to forge / fabricate documents in order to cause loss to the government exchequer by indulging in illegal foreign exchange transactions.

Documents like identity proof, birth and education certificates, voter IDs, PAN cards and signatures were forged / fabricated to incorporate entities, operating bank accounts, facilitating bogus / over-invoiced / under-invoiced import and export transactions and rotation of the funds through web of shell companies to cause undue benefit to the parties involved and loss to the government exchequer. Naresh Jain also facilitated parking of funds abroad by Indian nationals through his international Hawala transaction structure created in India and in various other jurisdictions.

It has been further revealed that Naresh Jain has done Hawala operation of Rs. 11,800 Crore approx. in 114 foreign bank accounts. Further, during the investigation conducted so far, it has been revealed that 450 shell companies have been used to rotate funds to the tune of Rs. 96,000 Crore appox. for providing accommodation entries of approx. Rs. 18,680 Crore to more than 970 beneficiaries. Today he has been brought to ED office for custodial interrogation.

Further investigations in the matter are in progress.