Benami land case: ED targets Misa Bharti at 3 locations

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday conducted raids at three Delhi farmhouses of Misa Bharti, RJD MP and daughter of party chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, her husband and a firm linked to them, in a money laundering case probe.

Sleuths of the central probe agency swooped on the farmhouses in Ghitorni, Bijwasan and Sainik Farms areas in New Delhi early on Saturday.

The farmhouses are linked to Bharti, her husband Shailesh Kumar and M/s Mishail Printers and Packers Private Limited.

Two more premises are under the scanner of the agency and can be searched later, an ED official said.

The searches are connected to a money laundering probe being conducted by the agency against two brothers, Surendra Kumar Jain and Virendra Jain, and others who are alleged to have laundered several crore rupees using shell companies.

The Jain brothers were arrested by the ED under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

One of the firms that the arrested duo dealt with was M/s Mishail Printers and Packers Private Limited. Bharti and her husband are alleged to have been directors of this firm in the past.

The agency said it was detected that 1,20,000 shares of M/s Mishail Printers and Packers Private Limited were bought during 2007-08 at a rate of Rs 100 per share by four shell companies - M/s Shalini Holdings Limited, M/s Ad-Fin Capital Services (India) Pvt. Ltd, M/s Mani Mala Delhi Properties Pvt. Ltd., and M/s Diamond Vinimay Pvt. Ltd.

These 1,20,000 shares, it said, were bought back by Bharti at Rs 10 per share.

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 firm, it said, was registered at 25, Tughlaq Road in New Delhi till the shares were bought back by Bharti. In 2009-10, the address was changed to Bijwasan, it added.