FINAL ORDER

06.03.2025

Present appeal is filed by the appellant, Ved Prakash Agarwal against the impugned order dated 22.09.2022 passed by the Ld. Adjudicating Authority in Original Complaint No. 1722 of 2022 vide which following property of the appellant was confirmed, which was attached by the ED vide PAO No. 15/2022 dated 31.03.2022.

Movable Property

2. As per the facts of the case CBI/ACB Calcutta registered FIR No. RC010 2016 A 0038 Dated 08.12.2016 u/s 120B read with Section 420, 476, 468 & 471 of IPC and also read with Section 7, 13(2) r/w 13(l)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and the substantive offences thereunder. The said FIR was registered against Amitesh Kr. Singh, Dy. Manager, Axis Bank, Bura Bazaar Branch, Kolkata; Sanjay Jain, Tax Consultant, Manoj Gupta @ Manoj Kr. Mandal, Staff of Sanjay Jain and other unknown persons. As per the allegation in the said FIR during demonetization, the bank accounts, account no. 916020048270607 of M/s Ganesh International; account no. 916020032932805 of M/s Indian Traders; and account no. 916020034983687 of M/s Kolkata Suppliers were used for depositing demonetised currency notes of 500 and 1000 denomination (totalling to Rs. 7,76,70,000) belonging to various beneficiaries, by Sanjay Jain and Amitesh Kumar Sinha for monetary benefits, in collusion with each other, by using misdeclarations that the said demonetized currency belonged to the business of said firms inspite of being fully aware that the said demonetized currency does not belong to the said firms, their business, or, to the persons shown as proprietor in these firms. The bank account numbers of the aforesaid firms were opened with Axis Bank, Burrabazar Branch, Kolkata by Amitesh Kumar Sinha, the then Deputy Manager of said Bank, in collusion with Sanjay Jain, without face to face verifying the persons whose name and identity documents were used for opening said accounts and without verifying whether the account opening forms were being signed by the actual person.

On the basis of the said FIR, ED recorded the ECIR No. KLZO/18/2016 dated 09.12.2016. After recording ECIR, ED conducted investigation pertaining to the offence of money laundering and recorded the statements of suspects and the other persons u/s 50(2) and 50(3) of PMLA as mentioned on pages 11 to 19 of the OC 1722/2022 elaborating the modus operandi and the generation of proceeds of crime and deployment thereof.

It is pertinent to mention here that previously proceeds of crime amounting to Rs.3,45,54,166.86 were identified and provisionally attached by ED vide Provisional Attachment Order No. 08/2019 dated 11.04.2019. The said previous PAO was confirmed by Ld. Adjudicating Authority, PMLA, New Delhi on 04.10.2019. Investigation by ED, in this matter revealed as under:

(i) It has been revealed by the complainant that the accused persons entered into a criminal conspiracy among themselves and in pursuance of said criminal conspiracy fraudulently facilitated opening of bogus bank accounts in the names of non-existing firms namely- M/s Indian Traders, M/s Kolkata Suppliers, M/s Ganesh International etc.- on the basis of forged and fake documents and facilitated illegal deposition of demonetized currency notes worth Rs. 7,76,70,000/- belonging to various persons/ entities. The funds so deposited were transferred to the accounts of various beneficiaries namely SW Iron Works Pvt. ltd., SG Iron works Pvt. Ltd., Sidhiratan Construction Pvt. Ltd., Ajay Kumar Jain @ Ajay Kumar Bothra, Awadhesh Shaw, Krishna Trading Co. etc. by way of RTGS/ NEFT/ transfer/ pay order/ demand draft/ Cheques instructions by Shri Amitesh Kumar Sinha upon instructions of Shri Sanjay Jain, projecting the same as untainted.

(ii) Awadhesh Shaw received Rs. 2,07,000 from fraudulently opened bank accounts against demonetized currency notes given to Amitesh Sinha. Out of which Rs. 882.31 has been attached in his bank account vide Provisional Attachment Order dated 11.04.2019 and the same was al