Mohammed Farooq Sheikh

Chattrapathi Shivaji International Airport

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was detained at Mumbai international airport.A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court has sent a South Mumbai resident, allegedly involved in a Rs 2,252-crore fraud case, to the Enforcement Directorate’s custody for two days. He is accused of being the mastermind of a money laundering channel.The accused, Mohammed Farooq Sheikh, was intercepted by the immigration bureau at theon Monday evening following ED’s look out circular against him.In an FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) last May, around 13 companies were booked for cheating, conspiracy and under sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. According to the FIR, directors of a company calledhad sent hundreds of crores of rupees abroad under the guise of import. Between 2015 and 2016, 187 remittances were made abroad amounting to Rs 463.74 crore through their account in the Punjab National Bank’s Mandvi branch against 25 import consignments, which had an actual value of only Rs 3.14 crore. This company also sent money abroad from its accounts in other banks, totalling to Rs 680.12 crore.Twelve other companies allegedly adopted the same modus operandi for making unauthorised remittances amounting to Rs 2,252.82 crore.Due to suspected money laundering, the case was taken up by the ED for investigation.The ED said that they had already been investigating Sheikh and a few other firms from 2014 under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999.“He is denying any knowledge of the said firms in spite of using mobile numbers connected with the account of these firms through whose accounts bogus forex remittances were made,” the ED said about Sheikh.“Sheikh is evidently closely associated and appears to be the mastermind behind all the forex remittances abroad, in the veil of fake bill of entries working as an active channel for laundering. He prima facie appears to be involved in money laundering,” the ED further said in their remand application.About the interrogation after his arrest, ED said, “He has not thrown light on the functioning of financials of the said firms in which he has made other people namesake proprietor/directors. On the contrary, he tried to mislead the investigation by initially stating that he was not aware of any person or any firm involved in the bogus forex remittances.”After hearing the arguments of advocate Hiten Venegavkar on behalf of ED, the court remanded Sheikh to ED’s custody for two days.