ED raid on gynaec throw up illegal foreign currency

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has booked a city-based gynaecologist under the Foreign Exchange Management Act on a charge  of stashing foreign currency and other violations of foreign exchange laws.

ED officials are also investigating possible money laundering by Dr Kamini Rao, who is the founder and medical director of Milann  The IVF Center.  Sources in the ED said that during the raid, foreign currency worth Rs 40 lakh and 10 foreign bank accounts with deposits of hundreds of crores in Indian rupee were seized.  

In  November, income tax officials had conducted three-day raids on two fertility clinics owned by  Rao. They found documents that showed doctors were making  crores of rupees through an  illegal commission by recommending various tests from diagnostic labs.  

Case against mining baron

In another case, the ED has provisionally attached bank deposits worth Rs 5.34 crore belonging to K Somashekar, the director of the mining company, M/S ILC Industries Ltd, Bengaluru, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

According to an official release, Somasekhar was involved in illegal mining. The CBI filed five charge sheets against him and others. Based on the same, the ED registered a case of money laundering.

Investigations under the PMLA showed Somasekhar possessed Rs 5.34 crore worth of illegal  movable properties. The accused projected the ill-gotten money/proceeds of crime, as untainted, by keeping them in banks as fixed deposits.  

DH News Service