Mumbai court sends Shiv Sena MP Bhavana Gawali's aide to further ED custody till Oct 5
India Today
A special PMLA court in Mumbai extended Saeed Khan's ED (Enforcement Directorate) custody till October 5. Khan is a close aide of Shiv Sena MP Bhavana Gawali.
A special court in Mumbai on Friday remanded Saeed Khan, a close aide of Bhavana Gawali, a Shiv Sena MP from Maharashtra’s Yavatmal-Washim, to the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) till October 5. Khan was produced before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court.Khan was arrested in connection with a money laundering case linked to a trust that was illegally converted into a company with alleged forged documents, according to the ED. Khan was arrested on September 28 and was sent to ED custody till October 1. The agency, now, sought his custody for seven days.Special public prosecutor Sunil Gonsalves appearing for the ED argued that Gawali's role is emerging in the money laundering case and added that the agency needed to investigate that. "It is a peculiar case where the complainant turns into an accused. Under the garb of filing an FIR, the accused are trying to shield themselves. Not one person, but there are various people involved. There is connivance and collusion there that needs to be probed," said Gonsalves.According to Khan's counsel, Advocate Inderpal Singh, the ED had registered an ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) based on an FIR lodged with Washim Police Station under Section 406, 408, 420 & 34 of the Indian Penal Code which was registered at the instance of the Chairperson of the public trust Mahila Utkarsh Pratishthan against 12 other trustees and office bearers for misappropriation of funds and cheating.ALSO READ: Mumbai special court remands Shiv Sena MP Bhavana Gawali's close aide to ED custody in money laundering case
The counsel further added that Khan is not an accused in the scheduled offence and is not the beneficiary of the Trust (or subsequently concerted entity).Gonsalves further added that certain people who can be categorised as accused in the case are coming (to record their statement) on Monday. Also, some witnesses have been summoned too.Gonsalves said that Khan needed to be confronted with the others who had been summoned. The allegation against Khan was that he was not cooperating with the investigators.Singh argued that the entire investigation of the ED was motivated to create incorrect records to save the accused named in the FIR, who have not been arrested by the agency."They are trying to convert the complainant as an accused," said Gawali, while adding that police which had registered the FIR have completed their probe and are about to file a chargesheet.ALSO READ: ED issues fresh summons to Maharashtra minister Anil Parab in money laundering case
Singh replied to ED's argument about documents being forged and said, "When there is no complaint of forgery, how can ED investigate the case?"Special Judge MG Deshpande, while going through the details of the investigation provided by the agency, noted that, "The statements of the accused indicate that remarkable progress has been made."The judge added, "There is substance in the contention of the ED that some persons revealed by Khan in his previous statements need to be confronted." The judge was of the opinion that the compass of the investigation is vast and broad and if custody (of Khan) is not extended, it will frustrate the very objective of probe.ALSO WATCH: Kerala gold smuggling case: ED files money laundering complaint