Mumbai: A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PLMA) court on Tuesday remanded Sanjay Jain, former partner of Hindmata Cinema, in the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) custody till October 27 in the Rs 600 crore IndusInd Bank fraud case. The ED has been probing this case for the last two years. Three companies had allegedly remitted crores in bank loan amounts to Hong Kong and Dubai-based companies, in the form of import advances using forged bills of entry.

While seeking Jain’s custody, the ED claimed that summons was issued to him earlier to tender evidence but he failed to appear before the investigating officer and purposely avoided the investigation.

They have further alleged that another summons was issued to him on October 11, to appear on October 16, however, he appeared on October 23 and his statement was recorded.

However, according to ED officers, Jain did not provide any explicit reply to the questions asked to him. It appears he is either purposely avoided replying to the questions that are vital for investigation of the case or intentionally failed to give specific replies. “It appears that apart from aiding and abetting in floating various shell companies for routing of funds he has with the help of other co-accused assisted in fraudulently remitting foreign exchange to the Hong Kong-based companies on the strength of forged bills of entry and other import documents,” argued ED counsel Natrajan before the special PMLA judge M. Salman Azmi.

The ED said Jain’s custody was required to unearth and trace the trail of siphoned funds and to gather further information in respect of wanted accused Vijay Kothari and others allegedly involved in the crime.

It was also argued that Jain is in a position to influence the other witnesses and tamper with the crucial links and evidence if he is allowed to remain at large.