Mumbai: A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court has declared Vijay Kothari, one of the main accused in a Rs 6,000 crore import remittance fraud case, as a proclaimed absconder asking him to appear before the court by November 13.
Kothari is one of the main accused in the Enforcement Directorate 's alleged Rs 6,000 crore remittance fraud case in which the agency arrested Sanjay Jain, the former director of Hindmata Gold cinema recently.
Authorities suspect that Kothari is holed up in Hong Kong, where most of the scam money was forwarded.
The ED plans to approach the concerned authorities in Hong Kong and send a Letters Rogatory (LR) seeking details of the money trail.
The officials said that they had sent summons to Kothari in the past asking him to appear for questioning however there has been no response. “He is the crucial link in the case and needs to be thoroughly questioned. The summons are not responded to and there is no clarity on our suspicion of where he is holed up,” said a senior ED officer.
The agency has arrested three persons in all in the case including Jain, Anil Chokhara and Saurav Pandit. The officials are yet to identify the ownership of the money, around Rs 600 crore, that made way to Hong Kong in the form of import remittances.
The money was parked in around a dozen bank accounts there and later diverted further. The LR will help find the money trail and where was it diverted.
The officials said that a lookout notice is already issued against Kothari and all the airports have been put on alert. In case he fails to appear before the court by the given date, agency can initiate attachment of his property, officials stated.
