RJD leader Misa Bharti flashes victory after the end of campaigning for the fifth phase of Bihar assembly election in Patna in 2015. Credit: PTI
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today conducted raids at three Delhi farmhouses owned by Misa Bharti, RJD MP and daughter of party chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, her husband and a firm linked to them, in a money laundering case probe.
Sleuths of the central probe agency swooped on the farmhouses in Ghitorni, Bijwasan and Sainik Farms areas here early in the morning.
The farmhouses are linked to Bharti, her husband Shailesh Kumar, and Mishail Printers and Packers Private Limited.
Two more premises are under the scanner of the agency and may be searched later, an ED official said.
The searches are connected to a money laundering probe being conducted by the agency against two brothers, Surendra Kumar Jain and Virendra Jain, and others who are alleged to have laundered several crore rupees using shell companies.
The Jain brothers were arrested by the ED under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
One of the firms that the arrested duo dealt with was Mishail Printers and Packers Private Limited. Bharti and her husband are alleged to have been directors of this firm in the past.
The agency said 1,20,000 shares of Mishail Printers and Packers Private Limited were bought between 2007 and 2008 at a rate of Rs 100 per share by four shell companies – Shalini Holdings Limited, Ad-Fin Capital Services (India) Private Limited, Mani Mala Delhi Properties Private Limited and Diamond Vinimay Private Limited.
These 1,20,000 shares were bought back by Bharti at Rs 10 per share, the agency said.
The ED also arrested Rajesh Agarwal, a chartered accountant allegedly linked to Bharti, who provided accommodation entries or black funds of about Rs 60 lakh to Mishail Printers and Packers Private Limited.
The firm was registered at 25, Tughlaq Road here till the shares were bought back by Bharti, the agency said. Between 2009 and 2010, the address was changed to Bijwasan, it added.
(PTI)