In a money laundering case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has temporarily attached many assets connected to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) politician and former Rajya Sabha MP Ishwarlal Jain.
Sharad Pawar, the leader of the NCP, is rumoured to have close aide Ishwarlal Jain, a former NCP treasurer.
There have been attached up to seventy immovable assets spread across several locales such as Jalgaon, Mumbai, Thane, Sillod in Maharashtra, and Kutch in Gujarat.
The investigation team has also taken possession of cash, silver, and diamond jewellery in addition to the properties. The value of each asset is Rs 315.60 crore, according to the officials.
The benami properties that Ishwarlal Jain, his son Manish Jain, and other individuals have purchased are included in the attached mobile and immovable assets.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a bank fraud First Information Report (FIR) in 2022 against jewellery companies associated with Ishwarlal Jain and other individuals. This is the basis for the ED’s case against Jain.
Based on a complaint filed by the State Bank of India, the probe agency claims that its investigations have shown that Jain and other jewellery company promoters were involved in criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, and other offences, resulting in a wrongful loss of over Rs 352.49 crore to the bank.
The defendants are accused of round-tripping transactions to inflate the financials and submitting fictitious financial documents to the bank in order to secure sizable loans. The ED claims that they have illegally syphoned off the money.
Prior to this, the agency searched 13 of the business group’s official and residential locations. Ishwarlal Jain is a member of this business group. The investigations turned up a number of financial irregularities. Investigations are currently underway.
