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The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has provisionally attached 11 immovable assets in the form of flats, residential houses, agricultural land and cryptocurrency valued at Rs 3.24 crores under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The properties belonged to Shantanu Gupta, Shashank Gupta, Abdul Wahab Yasir, Mohit Haldar, Puneet Dubey, and others located at various places in Uttar Pradesh on October 20 in the case of M/s Hatsh Telecom and others, informed a press release.
ED had initiated the investigation on the basis of the case registered by the Narcotics Control Bureau, Lucknow Zonal Unit, against M/s Hatsh Telecom and others.
According to the agency, the investigation revealed that Shantanu Gupta, Shashank Gupta, Abdul Wahab Yasir, Mohit Haldar, Puneet Dubey, and others were running a narcotics business through a call centre in Lucknow in the guise of software Businesses through nine bogus companies viz.
M/s Epitome Telecommunications Pvt. Ltd, M/s Hatsh Telecom Private Limited, M/s Jeo Pardy Telecom Pvt. Ltd., M/s Morpheus Telecom Pvt. Limited, M/s Sky Dreams Telecomm. Pvt. Ltd., M/s Sky High Telecommunication, M/s CG Telecallers Private Limited, M/s YS Telecom Private Limited and M/s 99 Style Retail Pvt. Ltd, the release stated.
Through the call centre, they allegedly used to call their customers based in the US and get orders of psychotropic substances, which were then forwarded to Sagar Asthana and Puneet Dubey, who later shipped them as parcels through Indian Post to their US-based clients.
The ED investigation has so far revealed that all the attached properties were acquired through the proceeds of the crime derived from the trafficking of narcotics and psychotropic substances to the US during the crime period i.e. between 2013 and 2017, the release added.
Through this modus, the above companies received a total of Rs 23.67 Crore in around 43 bank accounts. These funds were immediately siphoned off by the directors of these companies in order to acquire properties at various locations.
Further investigation is underway in the case.
(with inputs from ANI)
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