Court remands Vijay Kothari in ED custody
The Enforcement Directorate took him into its custody for investigation Monday.
Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Monday took into custody Vijay Kothari, the prime accused in the import remittance fraud worth crores of rupees. Kothari had surrendered before the court around 10 days ago, and was remanded to judicial custody. The ED took him into its custody for investigation Monday.
Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court Judge M.S. Azmi remanded Kothari in ED custody till March 29 to enable the agency to conduct the probe.
Although the court had declared him a proclaimed offender around two years ago, at the time of surrender, his lawyer had claimed before the Judge that he was unaware about issuance of proclamation and he did not receive any summons or notices from the agency. They claimed that Kothari decided to surrender before the court as soon as he came to know about the proclamation against him.
As per the prosecution case, the accused had remitted around Rs 1,500 crore to various companies in Dubai and Hong Kong towards direct imports from various banks. The agency alleged that many of the companies were dummies and the facility of foreign remittance had been obtained from the bank using fake documents.