Purushottam Chavan, the husband of an IPS officer, allegedly collaborated with other accused individuals to launder Rs.11 crore both in India and abroad, according to a supplementary charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate in a special court.
This is part of an investigation into a Rs.263 Crore Income Tax refund fraud case.
The federal anti-money laundering agency reported that Tanaji Adhikari, a former Income Tax officer and the main accused, lived a lavish lifestyle and acquired multiple assets across India using illegal funds.
Case Insights
The case involves the alleged fraudulent generation and issuance of TDS (tax deducted at source) refunds from the Income-tax department, amounting to Rs 263.95 crore.
Chavan, who was arrested in May and is currently in judicial custody, is among the several individuals implicated. Others arrested include former Income Tax Officer Tanaji Mandal Adhikari, Bhushan Patil, Rajesh Shetty, and Rajesh Batreja.
The ED recently submitted a supplementary charge sheet against 6 individuals, including Chavan, in the PMLA court in Mumbai. Special Judge AC Daga, who handles cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, acknowledged the charge sheet on Monday, stating that prima facie, all accused appear to be involved in money laundering.
Upon reviewing the allegations and the roles of the accused, the court noted that all were involved in generating criminal proceeds through their activities. The ED’s investigation suggested that Chavan conspired with Rajesh Batreja and others to handle and divert illegal funds within India and abroad. From August 2023 to November 2023, Chavan and Batreja dealt with around Rs 11 crore of proceeds of crime.
Batreja reportedly repatriated the illicit money from Dubai through the Hawala system, while Chavan used international SIM cards from the UK and UAE and traveled frequently during and after the commission of the offense. Between November 2019 and March 2021, Adhikari used these criminal proceeds to support his lavish lifestyle and acquire assets across India with the help of other accused individuals.
One of the methods used by the accused was converting the illegal proceeds into cash to avoid detection and then transferring the cash to Dubai via the Hawala channel.
