Court extends Sameer Bhujbal’s judicial custody

The special PMLA court on Monday extended the judicial custody of NCP leader Sameer Bhujbal till March 7 in a money laundering case. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) sought extension of judicial custody on the count of non-cooperation from Bhujbal, saying this was hampering the investigation.

The ED, in its remand application, claimed that Bhujbal had promised to co-operate in the investigation and submit documents about funds received from different companies, but even his authorised representatives had failed to submit the crucial documents.

According to the ED, Bhujbal was supposed to submit documents about funds received from Balwa group, DB Realty, Sanjay Kakade Group, Universal Development Corporation and others. The agency said that he had also promised to provide details on source of funds utilised for Bandra, Santa Cruz and Kharghar projects.

It also said that the investigations have already revealed that accused was the mastermind behind sending Rs 25 crore to Indonesia in the guise of investment in coal mines.

The remand application further stated that though the accused had admitted to have made such overseas investment, he had till date failed to submit the details of the bank accounts along with account statements and necessary agreements of foreign subsidiaries like Armstrong Global Holding, Armstrong Global Energy and Armstrong International Energy, all based in Singapore.

According to the ED, the modus operandi adopted by the accused was to provide cash against the cheque by him to various entities and the investigations have revealed that with this, more than Rs 25 crore was channelised.

“It is revealed that proceeds of such transactions were then channelled to Parvesh Constructions in the guise of real estate investment,” the remand application said.

The ED had registered two enforcement case Information Reports (ECIRs) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against the NCP leader.