NEW DELHI: In a major action against an
FPI
(foreign portfolio investor) heavily invested in the Indian stock market,
Enforcement Directorate
on Friday said it had frozen security holdings worth over Rs 580 crore after a series of searches earlier this week across the country in connection with the Mahadev app
money laundering
case.
The kingpin of the FPI in question has been identified as Hari Shankar Tibrewal, originally from Kolkata but now based in Dubai, who allegedly runs a "huge hawala" operation. According to ED, he not only partnered with the promoters of Mahadev Online Book but is suspected to be laundering proceeds of crime for many bureaucrats and politicians already under investigation.
With the freezing of security holdings, ED has so far frozen/attached assets worth nearly Rs 1,300 crore in the Mahadev Online Book money laundering case.
During the latest searches in Kolkata, Delhi, Gurgaon, Indore, Raipur and Mumbai, ED seized digital records of hawala (illegal non-banking cash transactions) dealings and evidence of hundreds of crores invested in the stock market.
ED said its searches at the premises of Tibrewal and his associates found that the former, through his Dubai-based entities, was investing the betting proceeds in the Indian stock market through the FPI route. The agency said he had employed many associates as directors in various shell companies. He was involved in large scale hawala movement of the betting funds, it added.
"Security holdings worth Rs 580.8 crore in the name of entities beneficially owned by Hari Shankar Tibrewal have been frozen," ED said.
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