New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday issued summons to RJD MP Misa Bharti as part of its investigation pertaining to the Rs 8,000 crore money laundering case against her and her husband. Ms Bharti, daughter of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, has been asked to depose before the investigating officer of the case here on Tuesday. 

Sources said Ms Bharti has also been asked to bring along certain documents, including those related to her personal finances.  Her husband Shailesh Kumar is also expected to be summoned. The ED had raided three Delhi premises of Ms Bharti, Shailesh and a firm allegedly linked to them in the money laundering probe involving shell companies on July 8. 

Three farmhouses of Ms Bharti, her husband and one registered in the name of Mishail Printers and Packers Private Limited were searched by the ED.

“The agency now wants to question Ms Bharti and confront her with certain documents seized by the agency sleuths during searches,” sources said. 

The latest summons and searches are connected to the `8,000 crore money laundering probe being conducted by the ED against two Delhi-based businessmen brothers — Surendra Kumar Jain and Virendra Jain — and others who are alleged to have laundered several crore of rupees using over 90 shell companies. 

The Jain brothers were arrested by the ED earlier under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). One of the firms that the brother-duo dealt with was Mishail Printers and Packers Private Limited. 

Ms Bharti and her husband were allegedly directors of this firm in the past. The ED had also arrested Rajesh Agarwal, a Chartered Accountant allegedly linked to Ms Bharti.

Shell companies are firms set up with nominal paid up capital, high reserves and surplus on account of receipt of high share premium, investment in unlisted companies and no dividend income or high amount of cash-in-hand.