The Enforcement Directorate (ED) logo.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Ahmedabad: The Enforcement Directorate, which arrested journalist Mahesh Langa in connection with alleged money laundering case and got his remand till February 28 on Tuesday, alleged that the scribe "was systematically manipulating financial dealings to enrich himself through deceitful practices".
Giving one of the examples of Langa's alleged "fraudulent activities", ED stated, as per court documents accessed by DH, that Langa told the agency that he paid about Rs 29-30 lakh for purchasing an office space at Binor-B, Square-3, Sindhu Bhavan Road in Bodakdev, a posh locality. But, when ED asked Langa's wife, Kavita, she stated that the property was purchased for Rs 75-80 lakh.
ED has found some "unexplained" transactions of Rs 1.07 crore between one Milan Mehta and Langa. The amount was received by Kavita, "which she used for her personal/business/investment purpose and returned the same after 3 years, without paying a single rupee interest". The central agency has claimed that neither the lender nor the borrower explained the reason behind such transactions.
Mehta also told ED that there was a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between him and Kavita at the behest of Langa over a land worth about Rs 2 crore. Langa allegedly told Mehta, who owns this land, to show the value of Rs 1.40 crore only on paper. Kavita was to get 50 per cent share and Langa had to pay Rs 1.02 crore, of which Rs 30 lakh was paid in cash. The execution of the deal is said to be pending.
ED also said that Langa "by demanding and receiving an undue advantage of Rs 68.68 lakh made illegal earnings which are proceeds of crime as a result of criminal activities..."
The amount is based on two FIRs filed against Langa by Pranay Shah, who runs an advertising firm Khushi Advertising Ideas Pvt Ltd, and a real estate broker Janak Thakor. Shah and Thakor have alleged that Langa took money from them for writing positive news about them. ED case is based on these cases.
While Shah paid a total of about Rs 28.5 lakh, Thakor paid Rs 40 lakh at different times. ED said that Langa had written a story on the Gift City project in Gandhinagar and quoted Thakor as a realtor. The story was published in January 2024.
ED said that bank statements of Mahesh Langa, wife Kavita and father Prabhudan Langa have revealed "several high value transactions which were not in line with the known sources of income of these individuals". Kavita and Prabhudan Langa reportedly told ED that their bank accounts were handled by Langa himself and they were not aware of the truncations under scanner.
Langa was arrested by Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch in October in an alleged GST fraud case and was behind bars. Following the arrest, five more FIRs were filed against him including, two by DCB, Ahmedabad, two in Rajkot, one each in Gandhinagar and Satellite police station in Ahmedabad. These cases deal with cheating, criminal misappropriation, criminal breach of trust, among other charges.
"During analysis of bank account statements of Kavita Mahesh Langa with the ICICI bank, a total transaction of Rs 7.40 crore were observed, besides transactions of around Rs 85 lakh in other bank accounts of HDFC and Bank of Baroda," ED stated in its remand application seeking Langa's custody.
Similarly, the central agency has claimed that Langa's father Prabhudan Langa, a 75 years old farmer, received more than Rs 1 crore into his account for providing consultancy services. However, the amount and services "are not in commensuration with his profile, besides various credits from persons such as Dipak Thakkar, Milan Mehta, etc., who are unrelated to him/his profile."
It further stated that "huge credits to the tune of Rs 95 lakh has been transferred from his father into his bank account which he used for purchase of a residential property."
ED has alleged that Mahesh Langa was using these bank accounts "for laundering his income from unexplained sources such as extortion and cheating and using the said money for investments/FDs, etc..." ED concluded that Langa allegedly received money from "unknown/unexplained sources" into his father's accounts in the name of consultancy service charges and got them into his own account for the purpose of buying properties.
When ED questioned, Langa's father in his statement reportedly said that "only Mahesh knows about these accounts and their transactions."