Aam Aadmi Party leader Preeti Sharma Menon, on Friday met with officials from the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) to record her statement in the money laundering allegations the AAP has made against Mumb
Aam Aadmi Party leader Preeti Sharma Menon, on Friday met with officials from the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) to record her statement in the money laundering allegations the AAP has made against Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar. Ms Sharma had in July filed a complaint against Mr Shelar accusing him of money laundering using two Kolkata-based companies.
Ms Menon, an AAP spokesperson, had submitted a complaint to various investigative agencies including the EOW, anti-corruption bureau, Enforcement Directorate and the State Election Commission. She had also written to the chief minister and Maharashtra governor.
On Friday evening, Ms Menon met with officials from unit 5 of the EOW in Mazgaon. “With my complaint, I had submitted documents obtained from the Registrar of Companies (ROC) to substantiate our allegations. The officials asked me to come and explain the documents and the details mentioned in them,” she said.
The party has alleged that Mr Shelar owns a company identified as Sarveshwar Logistics Private Limited, formed in 2010 with two other directors, and another, Riddhi Dealmark Private Limited. Riddhi Dealmark is said to be a Kolkata-based company and allegedly has Mr Shelar as its director.
“The companies have accumulated money through dubious sources and has even acquired property worth '18 crore in the last five years. This, despite the company conducting no visible business transactions or showing proof of revenue being generated,” said Ms Menon.
She added that despite not having an existing business model, Sarveshwar Logistics had received '3.6 crore in share application money, '26 lakh in loans and advances, and an unsecured loan of '6 crore without collateral.
“I got the information based on documents we obtained from the Registrar of Companies (ROC), which I submitted to the investigators. They questioned me about how I obtained them and I have answered these questions and also showed them the discrepancies in the accounts of the two companies,” she said.
She added that she brought to the notice of the investigators that Riddhi Dealmark had invested '20 lakh in Shelar’s other company, Sarveshwar Logistics, but there was no record of this in the latter’s balance sheets.
“In his 2014 election affidavit, Shelar concealed an important fact that he was a director with another company,” Ms Menon said.
She added that she had requested the EOW officials to take cognisance of the documents and register an FIR. “We hope they register an FIR against Shelar and begin investigations,” Ms Menon said.
A senior EOW officer confirmed the development and said that they were still verifying the documents submitted and would take further action once this was complete.
