In what has come as a relief to Prithviraj Kothari, one of the largest bullion traders in the country, the Gujarat High Court on Friday set aside a non-bailable arrest warrant against him issued by a special court for Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with the Rs. 5,395-crore Hawala scam.
The scam, which is being investigated by the team of Enforcement Directorate (ED) is seen as the biggest hawala racket unearthed so far and blow the lid off many high profile cases, including establishing the money trail in the 2G telecom scam.
The special court for PMLA had issued the arrest warrant against Prithviraj Kothari, who is also the managing director of RiddhiSiddhi Bullions Limited (RSBL) about 10 days ago.
Justice Abhilasha Kumari quashed the warrant issued by the special court for Prevention of Money Laundering Act cases.
According to sources in the ED Kothari had aided main accused in the scam diamond trader Afroze Fatta send over Rs. 1000 crore to his companies in Dubai via hawala channels. This money apparently travelled to tax havens and countries like US, Singapore, HongKong and Switzerland.
The money was sent outside India between December 2013 and January 2014 allegedly on forged documents to make bogus import bills that show import of diamonds.
The ED had in March 2014 busted a multi-crore Hawala scam during their search operations in offices of some diamond traders, including Afroze Fatta and Madanlal Jain, in Surat.
ED sources had stated that Fatta and Jain were mere front-end and the real kingpins could be Prithviraj Kothari and his associate Rajesh Jain, who is based out of Dubai.
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Prithviraj Kothari quashes arrest warrant
Gujarat High Court quashes arrest warrant against Leading Bullion Trader Mr. Prithviraj Kothari
Quashes arrest warrant against Leading Bullion Trader Mr. Prithviraj Kothari
The scam, which is being investigated by the team of Enforcement Directorate (ED) is seen as the biggest hawala racket unearthed so far and blow the lid off many high profile cases, including establishing the money trail in the 2G telecom scam.
The special court for PMLA had issued the arrest warrant against Prithviraj Kothari, who is also the managing director of RiddhiSiddhi Bullions Limited (RSBL) about 10 days ago.
Justice Abhilasha Kumari quashed the warrant issued by the special court for Prevention of Money Laundering Act cases.
According to sources in the ED Kothari had aided main accused in the scam diamond trader Afroze Fatta send over Rs. 1000 crore to his companies in Dubai via hawala channels. This money apparently travelled to tax havens and countries like US, Singapore, HongKong and Switzerland.
The money was sent outside India between December 2013 and January 2014 allegedly on forged documents to make bogus import bills that show import of diamonds.
The ED had in March 2014 busted a multi-crore Hawala scam during their search operations in offices of some diamond traders, including Afroze Fatta and Madanlal Jain, in Surat.
ED sources had stated that Fatta and Jain were mere front-end and the real kingpins could be Prithviraj Kothari and his associate Rajesh Jain, who is based out of Dubai.
Link URL :
Prithviraj Kothari quashes arrest warrant
Gujarat High Court quashes arrest warrant against Leading Bullion Trader Mr. Prithviraj Kothari
Quashes arrest warrant against Leading Bullion Trader Mr. Prithviraj Kothari
