Court takes cognisance of ED chargesheet against Sukesh Chandrashekhar, Leena Maria Paul, others in money laundering case
Dec 04, 2021
New Delhi [India], December 4 : Patiala House Court on Saturday took cognizance of the Enforcement Directorate's chargesheet filed against Sukesh Chandrashekhar, Leena Maria Paul and others in Rs 200 Crore money laundering case. The court also asked ED to supply a copy of the charge sheet to all accused in the case.
The Chargesheet has been filed by ED against eight accused naming conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar, Leena Maria Paul, Deepak Ramnani, Pradeep Ramnani, Kamlesh Kothari, Avtar Singh Kochhar and two others. According to ED, the charge sheet has about 7,000 pages including several annexures.
The Additional Session Judge Praveen Singh on Saturday took cognizance in the matter and asked the ED to supply a copy of it to the accused and fixed the date as December 23, 2021.
All the accused are presently in judicial custody. Advocate Anant Malik and Advocate Rohan Yadav appeared before the court for Sukesh Chandrashekhar, Leena Maria Paul and Ramnani brothers in the matter.
During a court hearing on Saturday, all accused appeared through Video Conferencing. Leena Maria alleged discriminatory behaviour of the jail official during her judicial custody. She alleged that she is not allowed to talk with family over the phone, which is allowed as per the jail manual.
Advocates Atul Tripathi and Mohammad Faraz, Special Public Prosecutors along with R. K. Shah, appeared for ED.
Earlier, court noted that money was being moved at Leena Maria Paul's instructions, the trail is still unknown and if the ED is not granted custody, the money trail which is currently unknown would go cold.
Court earlier also took note that at the time of the incident, Chandrasekhar was lodged in Delhi's Rohini jail and was running an extortion racket from behind the bars.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), a financial probe agency, has recently arrested them under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the extortion racket which was being run from a Delhi jail. Two co-accused Pradeep Ramdani and Deepak Ramnani have been also arrested by the ED in case.
According to ED, during the investigation, searches were conducted at various places linked to Sukesh Chandrashekar and his associates. During the search, 16 high-end vehicles were seized under section 17 PMLA and these cars are either in the name of firms of Leena Paulose or in the name of third parties. It is further submitted that it has emerged that Sukesh knowingly created the structure for layering and transferring proceeds of crime and thus, actively participated in the process of money laundering.
Sukesh and Leena Maria Paul along with several others accused were earlier arrested by Delhi Police. The police have recently also invoked the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the case.
Delhi Police had alleged that Leena, Sukesh with others used Hawala routes, created Shell companies to park the money earned from proceeds of crime. Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) had registered an FIR against Chandrasekhar for allegedly duping the spouses of former promoters of Ranbaxy, Shivinder Singh, and Malvinder Singh, of Rs 200 crore besides ongoing investigations against him in several cases across the country.
