ED arrests Delhi lawyer Rohit Tandon linked to Lodha

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday arrested controversial Delhi-based lawyer Rohit Tandon in connection with the ongoing money laundering case against him.

According to sources, Tandon, who was being questioned by the ED sleuths for the last few days, has been arrested under the stringent provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The agency suspects Tandon was instrumental in the illegal conversion of demonetised currency worth about Rs 60 crore in purported connivance with Kolkata-based businessman Parasmal Lodha and arrested Kotak Mahindra Bank manager in Delhi Ashish Kumar.

Immediately after his arrest, Tandon was produced before a Delhi court on Thursday which sent him to four-day custody of the ED.

Lodha — who was arrested by the ED on December 21 and later sent to seven-day ED custody on December 22 — was also sent to a four-day custody of the probe agency on Thursday.

Advocate Vikas Garg, appearing for the ED, moved two applications before the court seeking 14-day custodial interrogation of Tandon and seven days extension of Lodha’s custody. However, the court only allowed four days of custodial interrogation for both of them.

With Tandon’s arrest, the agencies have now nabbed some of the major players of the two high-profile black money rackets unearthed post note ban.

While J Shekhar Reddy was recently arrested by the CBI in Chennai, Lodha and Kumar have already been arrested by the ED.

The ED has recovered a stash of diamonds, rubies and jewellery from a bank locker allegedly belonging to Lodha in Kolkata. The locker, located in a public bank branch in Alipore road of the state capital, was opened on Wednesday by a team of ED sleuths and the agency is now trying to evaluate the exact price of the recoveries.

Sources claimed that as the required information was not coming forth from Tandon, he had to be taken into custody.

Tandon’s case pertains to an operation of Delhi Police’s crime branch and the income-tax department earlier this month when the agencies had seized Rs 13.6 crore, of which Rs 2.6 crore was in new currency, allegedly from a law firm here. After that, the ED had registered a PMLA case against Tandon.