Enforcement Directorate files chargesheet against Misa Bharti’s CA in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday filed chargesheet against RJD leader Misa Bharti’s Chartered Accountant Rajesh Agarwal in money laundering case. Misa Bharti is daughter of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.

The chargesheet against Rajesh Agarwal in a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case was filed before the court of Special Judge Naresh Kumar Malhotra.

According to the ED, Agarwal was associated with some transactions involving a firm allegedly linked to Bharti which is suspected to be involved in tax evasion.

The case had emerged after the ED had filed a criminal complaint in February this year under PMLA.

It was based on a chargesheet filed by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office against certain individuals and firms “for providing accommodation entries by accepting funds from their beneficiaries through mediators and converting the same into share premium transactions in the beneficiary company”.

The ED suspects the entire racket to be worth about Rs 8,000 crore of slush funds.

Earlier, Bharti questioned by Enforcement Directorate (ED) for around 8 hours in connection with the agency’s probe into a Rs 8,000-crore money laundering case.

The officials said her statement was also recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

They said Bharti was questioned about her role in relation to a firm, M/s Mishail Printers and Packers Private Limited, and her other finances and her links with a Chartered Accountant arrested by the agency earlier.

The ED had also arrested Rajesh Agarwal, a Chartered Accountant allegedly linked to Bharti, who provided accommodation entries (black funds) of about Rs 60 lakh to M/s Mishail Printers and Packers Private Limited.

The ED is the third agency probing alleged financial irregularities by the Lalu Prasad family after the CBI and the Income Tax department which recently attached benami assets worth about Rs 180 crore (market value) in its investigation against them.

With PTI inputs

Also read: ED raids 3 premises of Lalu Yadav's daughter Misa Bharti, her husband in Delhi