Four persons, including an HDFC Bank employee, were arrested on Tuesday by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under money laundering charges in the ₹6,000-crore suspicious remittances case at a Bank of Baroda (BoB) branch in the Capital.

Calling it a case of trade-based money laundering, where the accused traders evaded Custom duties and taxes to generate slush funds, the agency arrested Kamal Kalra, working with the foreign exchange division of HDFC Bank, Chandan Bhatia, Gurucharan Singh Dhawan and Sanjay Aggarwal after questioning them at its office here. Emails sent to HDFC Bank for its reaction did not elicit a response.

All the accused, ED sources said, were alleged middlemen for at least 15 fake companies out of the total 59 which were involved in the the economic crime unearthed recently and now being probed by the CBI.

Sources said the four allegedly connived with one another in “forming” fake companies and business entities in Hong Kong by “over-valuing” exports and subsequently claiming duty drawbacks.

The modus operandi

While the ED investigations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) claimed that the HDFC Bank employee was allegedly helping Bhatia and Aggarwal to remit the amount through BoB against a commission of 30-50 paise a US dollar remitted abroad, Bhatia was allegedly instrumental in forming the companies in India and used to remit money to companies based in Hong Kong.

Bhatia was working with Dhawan, an exporter of readymade garments.

They alleged that Aggarwal successfully sent tainted foreign remittances worth ₹430 crore through the BoB branch in Ashok Vihar within a short span of time.

Sources said more arrests of similar middlemen and other operatives, including BoB employees, could take place in the near future.

The agency is also probing cases of forex contraventions under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

The agency said BoB had informed it that “the total amount deposited in the 59 accounts is ₹5,151 crore and only 6.66 per cent (₹343 crore) of this amount has been deposited in cash in the bank while the remaining amount of ₹4,808 crore came through other banking channels”.

The agency said Dhawan allegedly obtained “duty drawback to the tune of ₹15 crore in a short period of six to seven months” and was in the process of putting in similar applications before being caught.

The ED is now investigating further to check the activities of the remaining suspected 44 fake firms which pumped in money to overseas locations in a similar manner.

ED sleuths had participated in search operations conducted on accused BoB executives last week and had seized a number of documents.

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